New population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau place Fort Wayne 77th among America’s largest cities.
Fort Wayne is still Indiana’s second-largest city behind Indianapolis, and jumped up one spot from its 2017 ranking. Since 2010, Fort Wayne has seen its population grow 5.5%, and is now larger than Buffalo, New York and Dayton, Ohio, while only 20,500 residents smaller than the 65th largest city: Cincinnati, Ohio.
While no concrete reasons are given for this growth -- the survey only counts increases or decreases -- director of Purdue Fort Wayne’s Community Research Institute Rachel Blakeman attributes these changes to local investment in “quality of place.”
“Things such as downtown revitalization, obviously Riverfront will be coming online here later this summer. So the idea of investing in a place that is attractive for people to live,” Blakeman said.
She also cited job market expansion and out-of-towners moving to the area -- and in some cases, starting families and having children -- as another likely reason.
The study also noted growth for other cities and towns in Allen County, with Grabill, Leo-Cedarville, New Haven and Woodburn all boasting population increases around 6% since 2010. The county’s overall growth stands at 5.63%.
This will be the second-to-last Population Estimate survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau prior to its 2020 count.
