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Demographics of Akron, OH
Affluence Level in Akron, OH
A below-average socioeconomic profile. Incomes, home values, and educational attainment trail the U.S., with higher poverty and unemployment.
People of Akron, OH
Akron, Ohio, is a city of 189,526 residents defined by its working-class roots and a population that is 54.9% white, 29.1% Black, 4.1% Hispanic, 2.3% East/Southeast Asian, and 2.3% Indian (subcontinent). The city has a modest foreign-born share of 3.5% and a college-educated rate of 23.3%, reflecting a population that is predominantly native-born and blue-collar in character. Distinctive identity markers include a strong union legacy, a dense concentration of neighborhoods shaped by rubber and manufacturing booms, and a demographic stability that contrasts with the rapid growth of Sun Belt cities.
How the city was settled and grew
Akron’s population history begins with its founding in 1825 along the Ohio & Erie Canal, which drew Irish and German laborers to dig the waterway and settle in what is now the North Hill neighborhood. The canal turned Akron into a regional hub for grain and goods, but the true population explosion came after 1870 when Benjamin Franklin Goodrich established the first rubber plant. The rubber boom attracted a massive wave of European immigrants—primarily Italian, Polish, and Hungarian families—who built dense ethnic enclaves in South Akron and Kenmore. By 1920, Akron was the fastest-growing city in the United States, its population surging past 200,000 as workers flooded in for jobs at Goodyear, Firestone, and Goodrich. The Great Migration brought a second major wave: between 1910 and 1940, tens of thousands of Black families from the rural South moved north for rubber-industry work, settling predominantly in the West Akron neighborhoods of Maple Valley and Summit Lake. These groups built the city’s physical and cultural infrastructure, from Catholic parishes in Kenmore to Black-owned businesses along West Market Street.
Modern era (post-1965)
After the 1965 Hart-Cellar Act, Akron’s foreign-born population grew only modestly, reaching just 3.5% today—far below the national average. The most notable post-1965 shift was domestic: the collapse of the rubber industry in the 1970s and 1980s triggered a white flight to surrounding suburbs like Fairlawn and Copley, while Black families consolidated in West Akron and Middlebury. Hispanic immigration, primarily from Mexico and Puerto Rico, began in the 1990s and concentrated in North Hill, which today has a visible Latino commercial corridor along Cuyahoga Falls Avenue. East/Southeast Asian communities (2.3% of the population) are small but established, with a cluster of Vietnamese and Chinese families in the Ellet neighborhood near the University of Akron. Indian-subcontinent residents (also 2.3%) are a separate, growing group, many employed in healthcare and tech at Akron Children’s Hospital and FirstEnergy, with a notable presence in the Wallhaven area. The city’s Black population peaked at roughly 32% in the 1990s and has since stabilized near 29%, while the white share has declined from over 70% in 1980 to 54.9% today. Suburbanization continues to pull middle-class families of all races outward, leaving Akron’s core neighborhoods older and poorer than the metro average.
The future
Akron’s population is slowly declining—down from 199,110 in 2010—and is projected to continue shrinking through 2030 as out-migration to suburbs and other states offsets a modest birth rate. The city is not homogenizing; instead, it is tribalizing into distinct enclaves. North Hill is becoming more Hispanic and immigrant-heavy, while West Akron remains predominantly Black and middle-class. Kenmore and South Akron are aging white working-class strongholds with little new immigration. The East/Southeast Asian and Indian communities are small but growing slowly, driven by professional recruitment at the city’s hospitals and polymer research institutes. The foreign-born share is unlikely to rise above 5% in the next decade given Ohio’s restrictive immigration climate and Akron’s lack of a major refugee resettlement program. The biggest demographic story is the aging of the white population: many of the city’s older white residents are staying in place, while younger white families leave for the suburbs, a trend that will likely push Akron’s white share below 50% by 2040.
For someone moving in now, Akron is becoming a smaller, more racially diverse, but economically stagnant city where neighborhood identity matters more than ever. The city offers affordable housing and a strong sense of community in enclaves like Wallhaven or Ellet, but job growth is slow and the population is not rebounding. New residents should expect a stable, low-growth environment where the people are rooted and the demographic trends are gradual, not disruptive.
* Values derived from national, state, county, city and local statistics and may differ in a specific area. Last updated: 2026-04-21T19:21:18.000Z
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