Northeast Ohio's 25- to 34-Year-Old Population Rose 1 Percent from 2000 to 2012

A few years ago, we touched on how little Cleveland's downtown population of young professionals had grown over the course of a decade: The city's core added only 1,300 "college-educated people ages 25 to 34" from 2000 to 2011. 

Nowadays, you can't throw an artisanal donut downtown without hitting a new apartment complex or row of townhouses. But the region as a whole is still moving sluggishly in terms of attracting young professionals.

Now, via the City Observatory's The Young and the Restless and the Nation's Cities report, published today, Census data is put into context: Most metropolitan areas in the U.S. are walloping us in that precious demographic. 

From 2000 to 2012, per the report, Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor (depressing Census bedfellows) saw a rise of 1 percent in its 25- to 34-year-old, college-educated population. Here's a sampling of the contrast we're up against:

Houston: 50 percent
Denver: 47 percent
Buffalo: 34 percent
Pittsburgh: 29 percent
Providence: 6 percent

Detroit's metro area lands at -10 percent, so we've got that sense of accomplishment going for us.