Trending
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect the correct estimated population for Moundsville, which is 8,401 as of the 2018 Census Bureau estimate.
WHEELING -- The city's population continued to decline from 2017 to last year, according to population estimates released last week by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Per the estimates, Wheeling's population decreased by more than 200 people in that timeframe, from 26,993 to 26,771 as of July 1 last year.
The city has seen a gradual decline in population estimates since the last census was taken in 2010, when it had a population of 28,486, but Mayor Glenn Elliott noted that the rate of population decline is slowing.
According to historical census data, the city's population peaked at the 1930 census with about 61,700 residents. By 2000, the number of residents reached 31,500.
The highest rate of population decline in Wheeling occured in the 1980s, when the city lost about 1.9 percent of its population per year on average.
In the early 2000s, that rate of decline was around 1.3 percent, and from 2010 to 2014, it was at 0.6 percent.
Elliott further attributed Wheeling's decreasing population numbers to its comparatively older population.
"Prior decades' mass exodus of young people have left us with roughly 22 percent of our population aged 65 or older, versus roughly 15 percent nationwide," Elliott said. "That means that even if more people are moving into Wheeling than leaving, local deaths will likely exceed local births for a number of years."
Elliott said the city aims to focus on local trends rather than raw population numbers.
"Unemployment is down, the demand for housing is strong, and our local sales and (business and occupation) tax receipts are strong," he said. "Our focus in city government is to do everything we can to facilitate more economic investment and job growth while at the same time keep moving the needle on quality of life enhancements for our community."
The Census Bureau estimates, which were released Thursday, also showed declines across the region and in other nearby municipalities. From 2017 to 2018, Ohio County's population decreased by 300 people to 41,755.
Also in that timeframe, Moundsville's population decreased by 130 people to 8,401 and Weirton's decreased from 18,672 to 18,449.
The 2020 census will be take on April 1 of next year, according to the bureau.
Wheeling remains the fifth-largest city in West Virginia, behind Charleston (47,215), Huntington (46,048), Morgantown (30,955) and Parkersburg (29,675). Morgantown is the only city in that group that gained population from the 2017 estimate.
Since the 2010 Census, Charleston has lost more than 4,000 residents, going from a base estimate in 2010 of 51,400 to its current estimate of 47,215. Huntington, meanwhile, went from 49,138 residents in 2010 to its current 46,048. At that rate, sometime in the next decade or so, Huntington could surpass Charleston as the state's largest city.