If you’re attending college in Columbus – Ohio State, Capital University or wherever – it’s a good idea to learn some basic statistical facts about the city and county where you’re living. While living in a rental house or apartment in a student neighborhood near Ohio State may seem like a fishbowl, you do live in a big city, and the more you know about it the better.
The U.S. Census “Quick Facts” page for Franklin County has much of what you’re looking for statistically about the population in the Columbus Metro Area. The stats are from 2019, and in some cases contain averages for the five-year period ending in July 2019.
For some statistical categories, we’ll include the numbers for two other Ohio counties, just for comparison sake – populous Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) and Adams County, a sparsely populated Appalachian county on the Ohio River.
The Main Numbers
According to the “Quick Facts” page, Franklin County (whose county seat is Columbus) had an estimated population of 1,316,756 as of July 1, 2019. If anyone has any doubts that Columbus is growing rapidly, this should settle that. The 2019 number represents a 13.2 percent increase from the Census taken for 2010. (The page gives an estimated population number for April 1, 2020 of 1,163,414. Cuyahoga County-Cleveland had 1,280,122 people at that time, with a 6.3 percent increase between 2010 and 2019, while Adams County had 28,550 people with a 3 percent decrease from 2010.)
Age and sex demographics are as follows:
• 51.2 percent female.
• 7 percent, people under the age of 5.
• 23.2 percent, people under 18.
• 12.4 percent, people 65 and over.
Racial stats:
• 62.1 percent White (not Hispanic or Latino). (58.6 percent in Cuyahoga County; 96.2 percent in Adams County.)
• 23.8 percent Black. (30.5 percent in Cuyahoga County; 0.5 percent in Adams County.)
• 5.7 percent Asian. (65.9 percent in Cuyahoga County; 0.4 percent in Adams County.)
• 5.8 percent Hispanic or Latino. (6.3 percent in Cuyahoga County; 1.0 percent in Adams County.)
• Other races, or combined races, are small percentages of the overall population.
Nationally, the numbers as of July 1, 2019 were: 76.3 White (including Hispanic/Latino), 60.1 percent (not including Hispanic/Latino), 13.4 percent Black or African American, 5.9 percent Asian, and 18.5 percent Hispanic/Latino.
Columbus isn’t especially worldly, with regard to people born in other countries – just 10.9 percent. By comparison, a more cosmopolitan metro area – Boston – had 28.3 percent foreign-born residents in 2019. Miami-Dade County, Florida, had a whopping 53.7 percent, likely reflecting the sizable population who immigrated from countries in Latin America. Cuyahoga County-Cleveland had 7.6 percent foreign-born residents, while Appalachian Ohio’s Adams County had just 0.5 percent. The national percentage was 13.6 in 2019.
Housing in Columbus-Franklin County
According to the Census “Quick Facts,” Franklin County had 564,325 housing units as of July 1, 2019. Some 53.4 percent were owner-occupied, with the median value of that housing at $175,100. The median gross rent for people in Franklin County-Columbus was $974.
Franklin County had 511,447 households between 2015 and 2019 with 2.47 people per household. More than four out of five (80.8 percent) were living in the same home where they lived a year previously.
Computers, Education and Health
Some 92.9 percent of Franklin County-Columbus residents lived in a home with a computer, according to the “Quick Facts,” with the vast majority (87.2 percent) having a broadband internet subscription.
More than nine out of 10 residents over 24 years old, between 2015 and 2019, had a high-school diploma, with 40 percent having a bachelor’s degree or higher in college.
The “Quick Facts” only had a couple of stats related to health. Some 8.4 percent of residents under 65 had a disability in the five-year average. Some 8.9 percent under 65 lacked health insurance.
Economic and Income Stats
• Median household income, averaged from 2015-19 (in 2019 dollars): $61.305. (In Cuyahoga County-Cleveland, it was $50,366; in Adams County, $39,079. The national average was $62,843.)
• Per capita income for the past 12 months (in 2019 dollars): $33,998. (In Cuyahoga County-Cleveland, it was $33,114; in Adams County, $22,366.)
• Persons in poverty: 13.5 percent. (In Cuyahoga County-Cleveland, it was 16.2 percent; in Adams County, 19.1 percent.) The national percentage was 10.5 percent.
• Total employer establishments in 2018: 28,857.
• Total employment, 2018: 664,545.
• Total annual payroll, 2018 ($1,000): $34,859,921.
• Total employment change, 2017-18: 3.5 percent increase.
Geography
Franklin County had 2,186.1 people per square mile in 2010, with a land area of 532.19 square miles.