[BALTIMORESUN] Baltimore’s population has dipped below 600,000 for the first time in more than a century, according to U.S. Census estimates released Thursday.The city’s estimated population was 593,490 as of July 1, 2019, the new data shows.
That suggests Baltimore lost 8,953 people, or 1.5% of its population, from the previous year.
While the city’s population has been trending downward for decades, it had some small increases during the administration of former Democratic Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, standing at more than 623,000 in 2014.
But since 2015, when Baltimore saw civil unrest after the death of Freddie Gray from injuries he suffered in police custody, the city has experienced annual declines in population.
None of the counties surrounding the city saw their population substantially decline last year, noted Michael Rendall, director of the Maryland Population Research Center and a sociology professor at the University of Maryland, College Park.
The city’s population loss, he said, "is not a phenomenon reflective of the overall metropolitan area."
Since 2010, the city has lost 27,280 residents, shedding more than 4% of its population, according to the estimates.
Welcoming new people should be a top policy priority of the city, said Seema Iyer, who oversees the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance at the University of Baltimore’s Jacob La Belle France Institute.
"We need that message to be very clear in the leadership ‐ that we want people to move into the city of Baltimore, that we want them to be part of the city," Iyer said, adding that leaders must work to ensure that there is enough affordable housing and a good transit system.
In addition to people leaving the city, a decrease in both births and in the number of people who have moved to Baltimore from other countries has contributed to the recent population decline, observers said.
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