Census: Lorain County, country is getting older and more diverse

Lorain County, along with the rest of the state, is getting older and more diverse. 2024 census data released Thursday shows about a quarter of the county's population is not white, and the median age now sits at 42.3 years old, six months older than the median of 2020. The changes in Lorain County's population from 2020 to 2024 follows a larger trend set by the state and nation. Older adults outnumber children in 11 states: Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and West Virginia; and in nearly half the counties across the country. "Children still outnumber older adults in the United States, despite a decline in births this decade," said Lauren Bowers, chief of the Census Bureau's Population Estimates Branch said in a news release. "However, the gap is narrowing as baby boomers continue to age into their retirement years," she said. "In fact, the number of states and counties where older adults outnumber children is on the rise, especially in sparsely populated areas." In Ohio, adults older than 60 made up 25.6 percent of the Buckeye State's residents as of July 2024 data, outpacing children and adolescents who were slightly more than 24 percent of the population. The same was true for Lorain County, with children and adolescents making up 22.8 percent of the population, and senior citizens making up more than 28 percent of its share — up from about 25.7 percent in the 2020 census. Lorain County Public Health Commissioner Mark Adams said the changes in the county's population are not new. "Our population is rising, but we're not having more children," he said. "It is more people retiring and they're staying here and not having kids because they're out of that age group." That shift toward a larger retiree base will mean a shift in focus for public health, especially as the number of senior citizens facing housing insecurity due to property tax increases rises, he said. "With this latest round of property taxes being reevaluated, the feedback we're getting is it is making it very difficult for them to survive and live in their homes," Adams said, noting some older adults are choosing between prescriptions and food costs as housing costs spike. Lorain and Medina counties are aging faster than the majority of other counties in the state. Lorain County ranks 10th in the state for the growth in its senior citizen population change from 2020 to 2024. The change is not because Lorain County residents are living longer, Adams said, as the area's life expectancy saw a slight decrease due to COVID-19 and chronic diseases in younger residents. He said a decade from now, the conversation may be that the county's average life expectancy has fallen despite advances in medical care, if those trends in cancer, heart disease and diabetes do not turn around. The county's growing diversity — while adding to the population as a whole — may see a decline in health standards if inequities pointed out in the Community Health Assessment are not addressed, Adams said. The CHA, a tri-annual document that helps guide health priorities in the county, was updated earlier this year.It found chronic diseases like diabetes claimed nearly double the lives of Black residents from 2019 to 2023 compared to the county's rate as a whole.Black, non-Hispanic and Hispanic residents also died by stroke or heart disease more often than their white peers according to the CHA. "That's our next generation and if they can't grow up with better food, better health care choices, better education choices, if those things are missing because we keep taking money away from it, we're going to have a generation that does not live as long, have more chronic diseases and will cost a lot more in the end than if we just handled things in the beginning," he said. As the county continues to age, its number of children enrolling in schools is declining, Lorain County Educational Service Center Superintendent Franco Gallo said. "When you have an older population, and we hear this (current) generation is not having as many kids, that causes challenges for schools," Franco Gallo said. Those drops in enrollment affect staffing, he said, and revenues. It also affects the next generation of workers. While more than a quarter of Lorain County's population are at or above retirement age, the next largest age group are adults 40 to 59 years old. Those adults are currently in the workforce, but will be at retirement age soon enough and the county's schools and Chamber of Commerce are gearing up to fill the workforce gaps left by their eventual departure. Schools must help their students get needed degrees and credentials because there are more jobs to be filled, Franco Gallo said. "We need to make sure our students are becoming productive members of society," he said. "... There's a lot of jobs out there that people don't realize they can be trained (to do) and the empower will pay to train them. Those opportunities are available and with the aging population it is critical to be able to help with that." Lorain County Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Anthony Gallo said the Midwest is aging, and Ohio is no different. He said the only community aging more than Northeast Ohio was Pittsburgh. He said the county must try to focus on attracting young adults 30 to 40 years old as the "sweet spot" where they are still having children and still working. "It's going to be something that takes time," he said. Lorain County is a good place to raise a family, and has access to the lake and more affordable housing than some of its regional counterparts, Anthony Gallo said. "Between what we've got culturally in Lorain County and culturally in the Cleveland area, we've got a lot of amenities," he said. "We just have to keep doing things right." As for the county becoming more diverse, Anthony Gallo was unfazed. Lorain, Elyria and Oberlin have always held diverse populations in the county, he said — with Lorain long dubbed the International City for its more than 50 nationalities represented in its borders — but that diversity has spread to the eastern portions of the county as well. He said at the end of the day, the county's economy needs bodies, and the diversity that need may bring is an after-effect. "If you wait long enough, that's just what happens," he said. "For better or worse, it's just the way of the world where we need hard workers. … I want people to be here for all the legal reasons — immigrants are vital to Northeast Ohio and Ohio growing as a whole. We want people to come here legally, to be able to work here legally and I can only hope we get more people here. It's a good place to be." Lorain County's largest racial gains from 2020 to 2024 were in the non-Hispanic Asian community (26.8 percent increase), native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (17.2 percent), and Hispanic (13.3 percent). Its non-Hispanic white population saw a less than 1 percent increase. In Ohio, non-Hispanic white residents saw a 1.6 percent drop in the population from 2020 to 2024, while the rest of the counted ethnicities grew. The largest gains were non-Hispanic Asians (19.1 percent increase), Hispanics (18 percent increase), and native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (17.1 percent). Nationally, the country's Asian and Hispanic or Latino population grew exponentially between 2023 and 2024, while its white population saw a slight decline. David Knox contributed to this story. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com