By Bill Raack, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – The latest Census estimates say the city of St. Louis is losing residents at a larger percentage rate than any city with more than 100,000 people. Census Bureau figures released this morning give St. Louis a greater percentage of population loss than other sizable cities between the April, 2000 head-count and July of last year. The rate is steeper than population declines in Cincinnati, Detroit, Baltimore and Cleveland.
But the city's director of planning and urban design, Rollin Stanley, says the figures are misleading, "When you look at what's been built since 2000, what's under construction since 2000, and will be completed by the end of 2005, we see a dramatic increase in the population, approaching the high 350's, almost 359-thousand people."
The Census's new figures place the St. Louis population at 332,223. That's down 4.8 percent, for a decline of an estimated 15,966 residents from the April, 2000 head-count.