The first thing most people think of when they hear about Columbus, Ohio is probably The Ohio State University (don’t forget the “The”!), and the second thing is probably the Ohio State Buckeyes. But the city is also the state capital and home to the headquarters of Nationwide Insurance and L Brands, the parent company of Victoria’s Secret, Bath & Body Works and other retailers.
That makes for a diverse economy, one that’s attractive to new residents. In fact, the Columbus metro area population grew more than one percent from 2015 to 2016, according to the latest census figures. During that time the population went from 2,020,144 people to 2,041,520.
Franklin County, where the city of Columbus is located, grew slightly faster at 1.14 percent from 2015 to 2016, with a total of 1,264,518 residents. The county doesn’t contain the entire metro area, so its population is smaller.
While some of the growth can be attributed to birth rates and immigration, the big chunk of new residents are movers from within Ohio and across the U.S.
So where are all those people coming from?
Another census study, conducted over five years from 2011-2015, gives us a pretty good idea of all the different places new Columbus residents are coming from.
Franklin County attracted 67,993 domestic movers during the five-year span of time. The majority, 56 percent, came from within the state of Ohio, while the other 44 percent came from elsewhere in the U.S.
Below are rankings for the top five counties of origin for movers to Franklin County:
Movers outside of Ohio:
- Cook County, IL (Chicago)
- Oakland County, MI (northwest of Detroit)
- Wayne County, MI (Detroit)
- Maricopa County, AZ (Phoenix)
- Dallas County, TX
Movers from Ohio:
- Delaware County
- Fairfield County
- Licking County
- Cuyahoga County
- Montgomery County
Above are the top places inside Ohio that people moved to Franklin County from over the five-year period 2011-2015. Numbers represent the number of movers from that place during the period.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
