Most area communities saw their populations decline over the past 10 years, according to numbers released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Cass County saw its population fall by nearly 2,000, from 40,930 in 2000 to 38,966 in 2010. Logansport, meanwhile, lost almost 1,300 residents, dropping to a population of 18,396 from the 19,684 recorded 10 years ago.
Other county towns also saw declines. Galveston’s population fell by nearly 200 residents to 1,311, while Walton saw a drop of 20 residents to 1,049.
Royal Center saw a small increase, rising from a population of 832 in 2000 to a population of 861 in 2010.
Two area counties saw their populations go up. Fulton County’s population went up by more than 300 to 20,836, while Miami County’s population rose by more than 800 to 36,903.
One segment of the Logansport population is growing. The number of respondents identifying themselves as Hispanic grew from less than 2,500 in the 2000 census to nearly 4,000 in 2010.
Statewide, many towns that once anchored Indiana’s auto industry experienced a major rise in home vacancy rates over the past decade, underscoring that this area is losing residents along with the jobs, local figures released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau show.
North-central and east-central Indiana, which absorbed the brunt of the job loss, also showed the highest percentage of unoccupied homes. For example, in Madison County, where General Motors’ former Anderson parts plants are now shuttered, more than 7,000 of about 59,000 housing units stood vacant during last year’s census count.
Five adjacent counties that have been major manufacturing hubs — Madison, Grant, Delaware, Howard and Wayne — combined to show a 10.5 percent housing vacancy rate, higher than most other places in the state.
Retired auto worker and Anderson City Councilman OIllie Dixon said that city’s west side has been struggling for 30 years as jobs slowly drifted away, with businesses closing behind them and finally people leaving.
“They’re all gone,” Dixon said of the factory jobs. “We have people here working two minimum wage jobs trying to make ends meet.”
State demographer Matt Kinghorn of the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University, said a large swath of Indiana, from Logansport and Wabash in the north to Richmond and Connersville in the east, were among the biggest losers of population, along with Gary, which lost nearly a quarter of its residents, declining from about 102,700 people in 2000 to about 80,300 in last year’s census.
Among gainers, the 10-county Indianapolis-Carmel metropolitan area grew by about 231,000 residents from 2000 to 2010, compared with statewide growth of about 403,000. The state’s overall population rose nearly 7 percent to 6,483,802 as of April 1.
Cass, Grant, Blackford and Fayette counties all lost at least 4.5 percent of their population in the most recent census. Each of those counties has experienced major plant closings in recent years.
Cass County has nearly 16,500 housing units, according to the latest census numbers. Of those, about 1,600 are vacant. Ten years ago, the county had slightly more housing units, and about 900 of them were vacant.
Neighboring Carroll County has a much higher vacancy rate, with nearly 1,600 of its roughly 9,500 homes sitting empty. Ten years ago, that county had about 8,700 homes, and about 960 were sitting empty.
Fulton County has about 9,700 housing units, and nearly 1,500 were sitting empty. That compares to more than 1,000 of the county’s more than 9,000 housing units sitting empty 10 years ago.
Pulaski County has nearly 780 of its more than 6,000 housing units sitting empty. That compares to about 750 of roughtly 5,900 housing units sitting vacant 10 years ago.
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