PARIS ON THE CHARLES:

Hub’s loss a real boomer: Data show working families moving on as empty-nesters move in (Jay Fitzgerald, 3/17/06, Boston Herald)

Suffolk - which is dominated by Boston but also includes Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop - saw a 1.48 percent decline in residents last year and a 5.15 percent decline over the past five years, placing the Hub dead-last in population growth among the 100 largest counties in America, according to Census Bureau estimates released and analyzed yesterday.

Among all 3,141 counties in the United States, Suffolk’s loss of 9,835 residents last year was the sixth-highest decline in hard numbers, according to census data. The overwhelming majority of those 3,141 counties, including many of the nation’s largest, experienced population gains.

The Herald first reported yesterday on the Hub’s population drop. But economists were stunned that further analysis showed Suffolk County was tops in population loss nationwide.

“It’s not good,” said John Bitner, chief economist at Boston’s Eastern Bank. “When you have a declining population, it starts feeding on itself. It’s tougher on small businesses. It’s 10,000 less haircuts, 10,000 less trips to dry cleaners. It becomes a downward (economic) spiral.”

Boston’s five-year population slide, on a percentage basis, outpaced even Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Buffalo, Baltimore and Milwaukee, all of which sustained heavy population losses.

It'll be easier to get Sox tickets in a few years anyway.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 17, 2006 7:29 AM