Census shows resident drop

• By Megan Bachman
• Published: March 17, 2011

• No Comments

If estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau hold, the population in the Village of Yellow Springs may have declined by 12.9 percent from 2000 to 2009, to 3,275 residents. This is a loss of 486 residents from the official tally of 3,761 residents in 2000.

The figures, from July 1, 2009, are based upon the yearly estimates the Census Bureau compiles between its official decennial counts. To create the estimates, the area’s births, deaths and migrations are taken into account.

Early results from the 2010 Census will be available for Ohio this week, and a more detailed article on census results will follow.

The loss of residents may be entirely due to the decline in enrollment at Antioch College, which closed in 2008. In 2000, the census measured 607 students on campus, according to figures resident Sam Bachtell obtained in 2004 from the Census Bureau. This suggests that non-Antioch village population actually may have increased over the last nine years, up 121 residents to 3,275 in 2009, from 3,154 non-Antioch residents in 2000.

According to Derick Moore of the Census Bureau, college students who are living away from home are counted where they are living, while enrolled at college. It is unclear whether students living in Yellow Springs but on co-op out of town at the time of the census were counted as village residents, though students should be counted where they normally live, Moore said.

But the 40-year trend for both the village and Antioch College has been continuing population decline. Total village population from 1970 to 2009 dropped by 1,349 residents, a loss of 1,041 Antioch students along with 308 other residents.

In 1970 Yellow Springs had 4,624 residents, including 1,041 Antioch students. By 1980, Antioch College had lost 302 students and the village lost an additional 245 residents for a total population of 4,077. Over the next decade, the decline slowed as the number of Antioch students in the village fell by 150, to 589 by 1990, while the village added 46 residents for a total 1990 population of 3,973. Between 1990 and 2000, Antioch gained 18 students while the village lost 230 residents. And over the last nine years, Antioch student population declined and eventually dropped to zero when the college closed in 2008, while the village appears to have gained 121 residents in that time.

Between 1970 and 2009, total village population fell by 29 percent while non-Antioch residency fell by nearly 9 percent over the same period. In the meantime, in Ohio the population increased by 8 percent, while increasing 50 percent nationwide. From 1990 to 2009, the population in Greene County increased nearly 17 percent.

About half of the 46 larger cities and villages in the eight-county Dayton region may have lost population from 2000 to 2009, according to the Feb. 28 edition of the Dayton Daily News. Yellow Springs had the largest percentage drop in population among them, at 12.9 percent, while Oakwood potentially lost 8.7 percent and Kettering may have dropped by 7.3 percent. Dayton had a 7.2 percent drop, the city’s figures suggest. Those cities with estimated population increases included Springboro, up 41.5 percent; Lebanon, 20.7 percent, and Xenia, 12.9 percent.

In addition to losing college-age residents, Yellow Springs has been losing school-age children since 1967. The number of students enrolled in the Yellow Springs school district dropped by 57 percent from 1967 to 2009, from 1,413 students in 1967 to 602 in-district students last year, according to the district. Since 1975 the decline has been 37 percent, from 960 students in that year. The decline in students has slowed in recent decades and increased by seven students in the last 10 years, up from 596 in 2000.

Visit ysnews.com for a report of the 2010 Census results when they become available and next week’s News for a detailed article.

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