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Ohio struggles to retain young adults

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Monday, March 31, 2025   

By Vanessa Davidson / Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi reporting for the Kent State-Ohio News Connection Collaboration.

Around 1,000 more people moved into Ohio than moved out of it in 2023, according to Census data. 

At the same time, Ohio is aging: Between 2010 and 2024, the percentage of Ohioans aged 65 and older increased from 14.1% to 18.7%, which is about one percentage point higher than the national average.

“Younger people are more likely to move to pursue job opportunities, and there are lots of opportunities in Ohio, but they're not all evenly distributed,” said Robert J. Graham, senior research scholar and associate director of Scripps Gerontology Center at Ohio’s Miami University. 

Because younger adults tend to concentrate in urban areas for jobs, rural areas are experiencing the impact of an aging population the most. 

“There are some [people] that say, ‘Hey, I want to go to college. I want to increase my education and get new opportunities,’ or ‘I'm looking for jobs,’ and those jobs tend to be created in more urban areas, or suburban [areas], and the rural areas in particular are seeing the face of that,” Graham said.

“They're having an increasing aging population and decreasing number of young adults and people to fill important services that are needed in their communities,” he added.

On the other hand, according to a 2025 data study from SmartAsset, Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland saw an influx of new residents in 2023. Columbus saw an estimated 75,500 (around 8.4% of the city’s population) adults between 25 and 44 move in. Newcomers in that age range accounted for 6.9% of Cincinnati’s population and 6.4% of Cleveland’s. 

Forbes included Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus on its 2024 “best cities for young professionals” list.

In addition to employment opportunities, cities like Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus in Ohio allow for more cultural and social diversity compared to their rural counterparts.

“Cleveland has a wide range of cultures, a large food scene, some very, very, very good public museums, gardens,” said Kent State junior fashion design major Lily Blackburn, who is from Illinois. “The city’s very beautiful, the architecture is really cool, the nightlife is not bad, the [art] museum is free, [and] the botanical gardens are really cool.”

Still, many Ohioans opt to move to other states. 

“If I'm being honest, I would not look here in Ohio for jobs that are inside my major,” said Blackburn, the KSU student.

According to Census data, in 2023, around 18,500 Ohioans moved to Florida and around 13,500 to Texas. (Around the same number of people moved from Florida to Ohio, but only 8,500 Texans moved to Ohio.) Between 11,000 and 13,000 moved to each of Ohio’s neighboring states of Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Indiana.

“If you look at some of where state populations are growing — a lot of the growth over the past couple of decades has taken place in areas in the South. So, Texas and parts of the Carolinas and Florida and Georgia, places like that,” said Jacob Duritsky, vice president of strategy, research and talent at TeamNeo.

According to Duritsky, there’s not a single driving force behind that migration. Factors like diversity, the job market and climate all contribute. 

“What's actually happening is our economy is diversifying,” said Jacob Duritsky. In Northeast Ohio, he said, “We're seeing healthcare growing. We're seeing professional services growing. So, along with the decline of manufacturing, that was offset by gains in other industries.” 

Some cities, including Cleveland, are finding ways to incentivize younger residents to stay.

“The [Cleveland] Town Alliance has a whole strategy around college retention,” said Duritsky. “We have tens of thousands of students who are going in our institutions. I think one of the best opportunities we have is to start to retain those people in greater numbers.”

Ohio saw its highest-ever total number of jobs in 2024. Duritsky believes that’s key to keeping young people in the state. 

“If we can keep our educated young people here by giving them opportunities to find internships and first jobs, by getting them into the community and experiencing all this sort of social and civic life that's here, I think that's one of the ways we start to move the dial,” said Duritsky.


This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.


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