Census: Philadelphia is growing (if slightly)

It turns out Cliff Lee wasn't the only one who wanted to live in Philadelphia.

The city grew ever so slightly during the last decade, adding 8,456 residents and, more important, halting a 50-year population decline, according to official Census Bureau figures released Wednesday.

The number of city residents increased 0.6 percent to 1,526,006.

Break out the champagne? Maybe not. Those extra 8,456 people are fewer than fill the Palestra for a basketball game.

Still, it's cause for celebration among government leaders and civic boosters who have labored to lure people and businesses and somehow stop the hemorrhage of population. The growth suggests that Philadelphia's population may have stabilized after decades of drops that began when Harry Truman was president.

"Spectacular," crowed Mayor Nutter during a City Hall news conference. "What this is really about is folks recognizing this city is moving in the right direction."

The mayor was gleeful to announce some good news after Gov. Corbett on Tuesday proposed a budget that could cost the city hundreds of millions of dollars.

Nutter's explanation for the growth: recognition of the city's prime East Coast location, great universities, a dynamic hospitality sector, and a more-business-friendly government.

"We're the city of the future," Nutter said. "People can be anywhere. They are choosing to live in Philadelphia."

More of those people are minorities. The city lost 81,810 white residents, a drop of 12.7 percent, and the black population stayed stable, declining 0.3 percent. But Philadelphia saw huge gains among Hispanics and Asians.

The Asian population grew 42.3 percent, to 95,521, and the Hispanic population 45.5 percent, to 187,611.

The city added 58,683 Hispanic residents, a figure that experts credit with helping drive the overall population increase.

Philadelphia attracted Hispanic residents in a way that other Pennsylvania cities did not, said William Frey, a demographer and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. For instance, Pittsburgh, which lost population overall, gained only about 2,500 Hispanics.

"There's an opportunity to make this grow," Frey said of the overall increase.

Philadelphia is linked to the Northeast Corridor, important as cities become less their own islands and more interconnected, Frey said. Professional couples may live in the city but work in New York, Wilmington, or even Washington.

"It's good news," said Paul Levy, president and chief executive officer of the Center City District. "We should be really happy to see growth."

Early in the day, Levy predicted that the release of detailed census figures would confirm the findings of previous CCD surveys: dramatic growth in Center City and its surroundings offset by declines in some older neighborhoods.

That's generally what happened.

Center City East grew 24.7 percent, Center City West 12.1 percent. The hot, hip Northern Liberties-Fishtown area grew 23.7 percent.

One big surprise was in the struggling Oxford Circle-Castor area. It grew 14.7 percent, the third-fastest-growing neighborhood in the city.

"That is shocking," said Chris Artur of Artur Realty there. He speculated that as older people had died, new families had moved in - and that homes once occupied by one or two residents now hold five or six.

The data released Wednesday indicate that Philadelphia will likely remain the nation's sixth-largest city.

Other populous Pennsylvania cities saw gains or losses: Pittsburgh dropped 8.6 percent to 305,704, Allentown grew 10.7 percent to 118,032, Erie fell 1.9 percent to 101,786, and Reading grew 8.5 percent to 88,082.

The overall state population grew 3.4 percent to 12,702,379.

Starting in 1790, when the city had 54,388 residents, the population began 130 years of growth that would be stymied, only briefly, by the Great Depression. As economic calamity faded, Philadelphia resumed its march toward a peak of 2,071,605 residents in 1950.

After that, it was downhill as the city's industrial base shrank and white residents left for the suburbs. By 2000, the city had lost 554,055 people, a decline of 26.7 percent.

The increase in city population from 2000 to 2010 represents the Census Bureau's official, person-by-person count. Unlike the bureau's new annual estimates, which are based on samples and include various margins of error, the data released Wednesday are the government's complete count of the state.

Some observers suggested that Philadelphia was bound to grow because many big cities are undergoing a resurgence as younger people move into revived, postindustrial neighborhoods and as senior citizens move closer to museums, theaters, and restaurants.

But not every city grew, indicating that Philadelphia's increase is based on more than a general trend.

Chicago lost 200,000 people, 6.9 percent. Baltimore lost 30,000 people, 4.6 percent.

Data for cities that best compare to Philadelphia, such as Boston, New York, and Detroit, are not yet available.

Cities in the South and West continued to grow, with San Antonio, Texas; Charlotte, N.C.; Las Vegas; Dallas; and San Jose, Calif., gaining population.