Columbus is the Sparkiest City in the Great Lakes Region (2024)

The Great Lakes Region, equally referred to as the Midwest Region, is home to many cities that are the nation’s traditional industrial leaders. In most cases, however, the ‘glory days’ for those MSAs have receded into memory. Debate now swirls around how to reclaim the manufacturing jobs that have migrated outside the country to other lower-cost nations in Asia and elsewhere. Or how to carve out larger shares of new work from the thriving and growing knowledge-based sector. Or how to more fully benefit from technological advances in resource development such as Ohio is achieving through the use of hydraulic fracturing to extract fossil fuels. Based on the demographic and economic criteria outlined in the accompanying eight tables, Columbus is the sparkiest member of the seven cities in the Midwest. Pittsburgh appears most sluggish.

Population size: Chicago (9.6 million) is the largest population center in the Midwest. Detroit (4.3 million) has about the half the number of residents in its metropolitan statistical area (MSA) as Chicago. (MSAs are city cores plus suburbs.) The other five cities claim about 2.0-to-2.4 million each. Particularly interesting is the population balance in Ohio where there is hardly any separation between Cincinnati (2.2 million), Cleveland (2.1 million) and Columbus (2.0 million).

Population change: Columbus (+1.30%) has been the only city in the Great Lakes Region to achieve an annual average population growth rate higher than +1.00% over the latest two years for which statistics from the Census Bureau are available. Indianapolis (+0.91%) has done next best, with Cincinnati (+0.46%) also recording a small pickup. Detroit (+0.06%) and Chicago (+0.03%) have been struggling to pull ahead even a tiny bit, while Cleveland (-0.10%) and Pittsburgh (-0.18%) have been moonwalking backwards. The bankruptcy of Detroit’s municipal government several years ago started the ball rolling on out-migration from that city, but a reviving auto sector has helped to stabilize and minimally reverse the flow.

Housing Starts: Chicago (7,308 units) leads in number of residential building permits issued so far this year. Columbus (3,374 units) is in second spot, with Detroit (3,027 units) snapping at its heels in third place. The level of Pittsburgh’s new home permits, at only 521 units, is the poorest showing among all major cities from coast to coast across America.

Change in homebuilding activity: Ohio is where the largest year-over-year percentage gains in homebuilding activity are occurring, with Cincinnati up 49.0% and Columbus ahead by 41.0%. Detroit can take satisfaction from its increase as well, +35.0%. Unfortunately in Pittsburgh the floor has given way, -59.0%.

Resale Housing Prices: The National Association of Realtors (NAR) does not publish median single-family resale home prices for Detroit and Pittsburgh. Those are the only two instances of ‘data not available’ for all the cities of one million or more population in the U.S. As for the other five urban centers in the Great Lakes Region, Chicago ($208,600) has the highest-priced homes, Cleveland ($111,300) the lowest. On a cross-border basis, Chicago is often matched with Toronto as having a similar bustling vibe. It’s interesting to note, however, that average home prices in Toronto ($746,546 CAD), even after the currency adjustment, are much higher.

Change in Home Prices: Chicago’s home prices (+8.4%) have jumped the most over the past year, with Columbus (+7.2%) also on a respectable upward path. Cincinnati (+2.1%) is having trouble getting untracked. As another point of comparison between Chicago and Toronto, the latter’s home price increase year over year has been a skyrocketing +16.8%.

Employment Growth: Columbus also spreads its wings as regional leader in labor market statistics. That city’s +1.9% year-over-year performance in jobs creation beats Detroit, +1.8%, and Indianapolis, +1.7%. Pittsburgh (-0.4%) has seen a drop in employment. The only other U.S. city presently recording a contraction in jobs is New Orleans, -0.3%.

Jobless Rate: Major city unemployment rates in the Midwest currently range from 3.8% for Columbus to 5.7% for Pittsburgh. Unlike the other demographic and economic categories discussed so far, where the order of ranking goes from fastest to slowest, or most to least, the number one position for jobless rates is awarded to the urban center with the lowest level.

Overall Rating: When almost all the criteria (i.e., leaving out population size since that’s essentially static) laid out in Tables 1 through 8 are taken into consideration, the overall or composite ranking of the cities in the Great Lakes Region is: (1) Columbus; (2) Chicago; (3) Indianapolis; (4) Cincinnati; (5) Detroit; (6) Cleveland; and (7) Pittsburgh.

View the completeseries – U.S. and Canadian cities demographic and economic comparison – in PDF format.

To view the regional city demographic and economic comparisons, please click on the individual links:

Washington Sets the Pace in Northern Atlantic Region

San Francisco at Summit of Pacific Coast Region

Orlando and Nashville Fight for Checkered Flag in Southeast Region

Austin Dominates in Center South Region

Columbus is the Sparkiest City in the Great Lakes Region

Denver Wears the Crown in Center North Region

The Grand Prize Winner is Vancouver

Seven Cities (MSAs) in
Center South Region Ranked by:

When two or more cities have the same number in a table, their ranking is a tie.

Data sources: Census Bureau, NAR, NAHB, BLS, Statistics Canada, CMHC, CREA / Chart: ConstructConnect™.