Census 2010: Cleveland Heights Older, Has Fewer Families

The U.S. Census Bureau released more information Thursday from its 2010 survey, including detailed statistics about the age of communities and the makeup of households for cities in Ohio, including Cleveland Heights.

Cleveland Heights Patch , which revealed that the population in Cleveland Heights dropped by 7 percent during the past 10 years.

Additionally, the racial breakdown changed. The number of Hispanic and Asian residents jumped, while the number of white and black residents decreased by 12 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

The results released Thursday revealed that the population is slightly older, there are about 11 percent fewer families, and, as most are well aware, there are more vacant homes. Here are a few specifics from the latest figures:

Cleveland Heights is older 

The median age increased from 35.2 to 35.8. The number of children under the age of 5 dropped slightly, from 3,084 in 2000 to 2,810, while the number of residents 65 years and older moved up from 5,854 to 6,246.

The Cleveland Heights-University Heights School District is looking at , and mentioned in meetings that it projects the population of students to drop from its current enrollment of about 6,000 in the near future.

There are more vacant homes

In 2000, 4 percent of homes, which include owner-occupied and rentals, were vacant. Now about 11.2 percent of all housing units in Cleveland Heights, or 2,508 are vacant compared to 885 10 years ago. The homeowner vacancy rate moved from 1.2 to 3 percent, while the renter vacancy rate jumped from 5 to 10 percent. 

The city is working to combat the foreclosure crisis by , and turn those rehabilitated around for sale.

There are fewer families

In 2000, there were 12,174 families in Cleveland Heights, and in 2010, that number dropped by 11 percent to 10,834.

There are more renters

Renter-occupied housing increased slightly from 37.9 to 43.7 percent.