Allegheny Institute Blog

By now the news is widespread: since 2000, the seven-county Pittsburgh metro area lost 60,000 residents, second only to the hurricane ravaged New Orleans metro. The news is nothing new as previous year-over-year estimates of population have shown that the metro is declining in population. In fact, we have known that the City of Pittsburgh reached its peak population in 1950 and has been on the decline ever since then, long before the shuttering of the steel industry.

The Pittsburgh metro’s population loss in percentage terms (2.5%) puts us in the same company of Youngstown and Buffalo.

It is interesting to look at the metros that were similar in size to Pittsburgh in 2000, when the metro had 2.4 million people—San Diego (2.8m), St. Louis (2.7m), Baltimore (2.6m), Tampa (2.4m), Denver (2.2m), and Cleveland (2.1m). Over the six year time frame, all but Pittsburgh and Cleveland increased their metro area populations. Goes to show how emulating the “Cleveland miracle” of stadium and downtown revitalization was a great strategy. Cleveland only managed to lose 34,000 people to Pittsburgh’s 60,000 over the six years.

The metro areas that were smaller than Pittsburgh in 2000, Tampa and Denver, are now bigger than Pittsburgh. The gap between Pittsburgh and San Diego, St. Louis, and Baltimore has grown even more since 2000.

Though it has been known what the problems are, there is little attempt to take them head on. Officials just take the approach of attacking the branches instead of the roots. And our man-made policy disasters show no sign of being reversed. So don’t be surprised when the next round of data shows a smaller metro area again.