Franklin County is young, but getting older
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Open embedded content from datawrapper.dwcdn.netHey there Franklin County — you don't look a day over 34.7 years old.
By the numbers: That was our county's median age in 2021, per U.S. Census data, the third youngest of Ohio's 88 counties.
- Counties like ours with major college campuses tend to have lower median ages.
- Only Athens (home of Ohio University) and Holmes (the heart of Amish Country) are younger.
Yes, but: Franklin's median age increased slightly between April 2020 and July 2021.
- The county recorded a slight dip in population during that time period, we wrote earlier this year, with thousands of residents moving out during the pandemic.
What's ahead: The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) expects the area's population growth to return and reach an estimated 3 million residents by 2050.
What they're saying: It's possible families with children are taking advantage of being able to work from home and moving away from Columbus' urban center, MORPC data analyst Ethan Hug tells Axios.
- And in general, fewer Americans are having kids, which is skewing our population older.
The bottom line: Just like Violet Beauregarde, we're young, but getting bigger and older by the minute.
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