Population within 1970 City Limits of Memphis:
1970 — 619,757
1980 — 568,677 – down 8%
1990 — 528,064 — down 7%
2000 — 500,370 — down 5%
2010 — 445,841 — down 11%
2012 — 452,837 — up 2%
2013 — 449,930 — down 1%
Between 1970 and 2013, population decreased 27% inside the 1970 city limits of Memphis, or by 169,827 people, the equivalent of the population of Chattanooga.
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Population within 1960 City Limits of Memphis:
1960 — 505,563
1970 — 486,641 — down 4%
1980 — 407,632 — down 16%
1990 — 368,321 — down 10%
2000 — 335,086 — down 9%
2010 — 298,645 — down 19%
2012 — 304,228 — up 2%
2013 — 296,360 — down 3%
Between 1960 and 2013, population decreased 41% inside 1960 city limits of Memphis, or 209,203 people, the equivalent of the population of Little Rock.
Interesting but depressing statistics. Without growth Memphis will continue to decline.
This is another Anon. I think many of us have seen the decline in population but how do we interpret it and what are solutions? Is this worse than other central cities?
Most say don’t annex any more and I think that’s taken care of by the State legislature. You and others say shrink the city but how? Do we start deannexing? Most of those proposals want to deannex recently annexed, middle class areas but it seems that that leads to more economic segregation. Do we really want to shove the poor into Memphis, with a few wealthy areas and reserve the suburbs for the middle class?
It would seem like deannexing some troubled areas might be more feasible and to work on clearing some blighted areas and inviting more gentrification of these inner city neighborhoods.
This is , of course, reflecting white flight that began in the 60’s. The white base also took retail and white collar jobs with them. And it happened to many cities, not just Memphis.
What will reverse the decline?
I would argue we will see a reversal in a new generation that rejects the suburban lifestyle of their parents. Expect to see more and more new construction apartments in Midtown and Downtown (stop building suburban looking buildings in our urban core, please). Over the decades this inward influx will bring jobs with them. White collar jobs will be the last thing to return.
In my view, the city of Memphis will become even poorer and the suburban areas, especially in Mississippi, will become even more suburban and sprawling. Some gentrification in midtown and downtown will continue to very slowly happen, but only in a few areas. The fact is people will not want to live or invest in areas that are surrounded by the dual cancers of poverty and crime. Memphis simply does not have the white collar jobs to attract the young professionals who could help remedy the situation. I’d like to be more optimistic, but Memphis is really caught in a vicious circle where the cards are stacked against us on many levels.
Re: Comments on Smart City post about population decline in inner-city Memphis
Anon 2: “…… what are solutions? Is this worse than other central cities?”
PT: “What will reverse the decline?”
PT: “Over the decades this inward influx will bring jobs with them. White collar jobs will be the last thing to return.”
ANON 3: “Memphis simply does not have the white collar jobs to attract the young professionals who could help remedy the situation.”
FG: All cities in America, big and small, have experienced the Memphis decline since World War II. It was more noticeable recently because core city populations have bottomed out in last two decades.
There are white collar jobs in Memphis – downtown/medical center and Poplar Ave corridor to Germantown. The millennials will be attracted to these areas, but Anon 3 is correct and the jobs need to be created, maybe by the younger generation themselves since they can’t find higher income employment. They are rejecting their parents’ suburban push (see Peter Taylor above).
The economy for communication technology, health-care, and sustainable energy is unlimited over the next several decades. Memphis needs to position itself for these trends and get off of warehouse jobs and minimum wage services. Check out our Mayor’s hype of Cheesecake Factory fast food place, really?
We shouldn’t dismiss this trend line by suggesting that all cities have seen declines.
We’ll find the data point, but as we recall, two-thirds of cities the size of Memphis lost population in this same timeframe.
However – and it’s a big however – few lost the percentage of population that we did. If Memphis had not annexed, Memphis would be on a list with Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis and other rustbelt cities. There are not many cities that lost 41% of their population since 1960.
The loss should be a wake-up call that we need to do two things: 1) develop a serious population growth plan and 2) begin a serious analysis about the pluses and minuses of deannexation, including the financial, racial and social implications of various areas.
@Finegold Hasava “Check out our Mayor’s hype of Cheesecake Factory fast food place, really?”
Yet it was the local “press” who breathlessly reported on this story. The local media – and we are starting to see some serious reporting from the CA – play along with the charade.
Who in Memphis speaks “truth to power”?
We just gave a tax break to FedEx that will require local taxpayers to make up the shortfall for our airport modernization. Good luck finding any quality reporting on that topic.
One of the main reasons the local press jumps on stories about new places like Cheesecake Factory and IKEA is simply because there is very little else to report. Just compare the weak MBJ and CA business coverage and the vast majority of the biz stories are really small-townish — covering places like restaurants, remodeled Krogers, nothing at all really major. We are a real desert wasteland as far as major new jobs and economic development compared to places like Nashville, Atlanta, Austin, etc. Another telling comparison is to look at the reports on the monthly sales of high end homes in all of greater Memohis…it’s rare to see $1 million plus homes sold here, yet in the Nashville Biz Journal these are common events, many are in the $3+ million category up there. In short, our economy is badly lagging, and that is not a good future indicator that will draw people and jobs to Memphis.
Dear Smart:
You posted population decline after both 1960 and 1970, which would make comparable to all other cities that could not annex for whatever reason. Rustbelt cities can’t annex because of state laws from the 1920s, and Memphis 1960 is a good mark for comparison to these like Detroit, Cleveland, and St. Louis. Other U. S. cities that approached Memphis’ 41% loss were based on white flight and/or large Black middle class moving to suburbs.
In my opinion, further discussion on de-annexation is not where we should go. Let’s stand pat and work on the ~320 square miles. This area has a good diversity, and the poverty areas are balanced by higher income areas. I still say that 1960 Memphis population size/location has bottomed out, unless cheap developers build cheap houses outside Memphis in great quantities like 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s.
De-annexation will simply send these areas to Shelby government and Memphis taxpayers will still foot most of the bill without direct policy decisions.
FG
Dear PT
Yes, we are seeing better reporting and analysis from CA. I hope it keeps up and improves. Re: Cheesecake reporting – On this and other items, I can’t tell if media takes a minor comment from public officials and blows up or if public officials orchestrate the news item?
FG
The Commercial Appeal continues to be appalling. Only the recent special reports about the city’s fiscal problems have been worth reading. Otherwise, it’s just recycled stale press releases. Same applies to the Memphis Business Journal which never attempts in depth news coverage.
I grew up in the shadow of Memphis, have lived in the ‘burbs for much of my adult life and have been waiting for Memphis to get it’s act together all this time. I am 53 and moved here when I was about 10.
Nothing would be nicer than to buy a home in an older neighborhood of Memphis- something I have been looking for on and off for a very long time. There are few attractive options for someone who would like to find a community and make it home.
Houses in any neighborhood that is not gangland or the ghetto are priced way beyond what the income statistics for Memphis would suggest. A smallish older home I looked at last week bordering a high crime area on a smallish lot was about $200,000 and had city/county taxes that figured at well over $200 per month. Do the math and figure who can afford the 20% down the mortgage on $200k, $200+ a month in taxes, an obligatory security system and private school tuition- certainly not many young couples or single parent families.
Of course you can buy houses for days on streets unsafe for man and beast for $20-30k.
The problem is that there is no middle. Any home in a decent neighborhood by the most generous definition skyrockets quickly up in price.
That boat has sailed for my generation and now I am looking toward a home to buy for retirement in less than 15 years. Memphis has no decent public transit, unsafe streets, is sprawled as bad as any city you can name, has streets and other public infrastructure in great disrepair and a rapidly declining retail base- not the kind of city someone wants to grow old in.
I am not a lawyer, but Memphis needs to consider breaking up into a number of smaller communities with neighborhood schools or the future you desire will not come. Young families will not raise children in neighborhoods with lame schools and streets rightly or wrongly viewed as unsafe.
Racism is a real and ongoing problem, as are fear of crime and an aversion to bad schools. The city looks rough and run down to the eyes of a visitor.
To save Memphis, the city needs to shrink so that neighborhoods that have the critical mass to save themselves can without the burden of the rest that will not.
Lurker summarizes the reality of life in Memphis in 2015 pretty well. The city is rough and has been in continued decline for about 25 years. We’ve all been hoping for a turnaround, but things here are pretty much beyond the point of no return.
With the city’s largest company still laying off employees and outsourcing technology where is the salvation? There is none. You are either in the fortunate chosen who were allowed to keep their jobs or after some nice nice words and nice nice “we encourage you to leave” good-bye, you move on. Most I know have moved on. Far and Fast. To other parts of the world and to other parts of the US. And they went anywhere except remain here. There have been zero investments in Memphis in time or talent or funding. This nation has sent the last four decades outsourcing jobs to other countries and those industries and the millions of jobs are gone forever while spending like drunken sailors. We have SPENT the seed corn of our father’s fathers. The easiest thing to do about crime? Move. The easiest thing to do about poverty? Move. The easiest thing to do about layoffs? Move. VERY very fast. The easiest thing to do about poor government leadership and mismanagement? Move. The easiest thing to do about putting up with the unending barrage that somehow white people are to blame for every problem in Memphis and the world? MOVE!! The entire world is compressing and withdrawing… and if you are big enough you can borrow low, add to your base, commoditize and streamline. If you are small… you MOVE. You just get out of the way. But hey, look on the bright side. Your precious stock markets is soaring. FedEx and Cracker Barrel? TO THE MOON BABY!