List of cities whose population has fallen under a million

This is a list of cities (city limit) whose population has fallen under a million residents, having previously been over a million, the trend not being attributable to a temporary event. This list does not include cities which have amalgamated and/or no longer exist. Following the city name is the year of its peak population.

Causes of Population Decline

There are many reasons while cities decline in population. One of those reasons is the weakening of the industry that created the city.^[1] For example, Detroit's population has fallen under a million people due in part to the American automobile industry. Detroit grew swiftly during the automobile boom after WWII. However, the boom has subsided and manufacturing for many companies has shifted overseas. Many people in the automobile industry lost their jobs, and the city began to decline.^[1] Other manufacturing cities have also seen a decline in population, such as Cleveland, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh, although these cities has not seen as big a decline as Detroit has.^[1] As a result, many working class city residents leave the city in search of jobs. This is evident in that of all communities in shrinking rust-belt cities, the working-class neighborhoods tend to depopulate the quickest.^[2]

Poor urban planning is another reason that cities like Detroit have declined. If cities do not manage the growth of the city and simply let capitalism do the work, the city will not be too well-planned. This can leadeto sprawling cities with high crime areas.^[3]

Poor urban planning is a part of poor city management, which is an even greater problem. Many cities that are declining have large budget deficits. For example, Detroit has approximately $18 billion in debt and has subsequently filed for bankruptcy.^[4] Having to slash the budget in order to repay its debt, the city government now has to slash pensions for city workers, angering unions and starting a controversy over how to balance the budget.^[4] A historical example of economic insolvency is New York City during the 1970s. New York City was financially insolvent, hindering its ability to have a police department to lower the crime rate.^[5] It took Mayor Edward I. Koch to make the city financially solvent again.^[5] Then it took Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani to use the new funds to build a new NYPD and lower the crime rate in the city.^[6]

The parallel to that today is the city of Detroit. The city is financially insolvent, going bankrupt. Its emergency response time is 58 minutes on average, significantly higher than in any other city.^[7] Lack of funding leads to under-performance, and until cities like Detroit get more resources to tackle crime, those cities will have a harder time to improve their services.

Another reason for a decline in city population is racial tensions. Many American cities have had to deal with tensions between blacks and whites for years. These tensions can cause one race to leave, effectively weakening the city and lowering the population.^[8] Gang conflicts, race riots, and other violent conflicts can also cause people to leave. Many of the cities on this list are notorious for their high crime rates, which is often the result of a poor city economy.^[8] For example, Donetsk Ukraine has a robbery rate of 148 people per 1 million people, a relatively large robbery rate.^[9]

All of these problems relate to declining cities. The cities on this list have at least some of these problems.

List

• Detroit, USA - 1950 Census^[10] 1,849,568
• Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine - 1989 Census^[11] 1,177,897. Status regained, with a 2014 population of 1,032,822^[12]
• Donetsk, Ukraine - 1989 Census^[11] 1,109,102
• Glasgow, United Kingdom - 1961 Census^[13] 1,055,000
• Kitakyushu, Japan - 1980 Census^[14] 1,065,078
• Naples, Italy - 1981 Census^[15] 1,212,387. Status regained, with a 2014 population of 1,061,644.^[16]
• Perm, Russia - 2002 Census^[17] 1,001,653. Status was regained, with a 2014 population of 1,026,481. ^[18]
• Turin, Italy - 1981 Census^[15] 1,117,154

Exceptions

• Dublin, Ireland - city split, had a population of 1,003,164 in 1981 Census.^[19]

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

See also

• Population decline
• Deurbanization
• Shrinking cities

Refs