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.
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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.
In 2015, a Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance report for Rawlings-Blake’s “Grow Baltimore” initiative identified key factors that make people want to leave the city.
They were: “daily stressors such as litter, parking, property crime and vacant housing; high property taxes and insurance rates; poor performing public schools and lack of information about school choice; and few market-rate housing choices for new retirees.”
Since 2015, violence has spiked in the city, with more than 300 homicides each year.