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Why So Many Americans Are Leaving The Great Lakes States
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Mar 31, 2025
The Great Lakes are a tremendous resource for the United States. In an age of climate change where water is becoming more scarce, the states and surround the Great Lakes are in an enviable position for the future. Despite this, however, Americans continue to leave the region for places that otherwise would be more susceptible to these future climate change risks. Here's why so many Americans consistently leave this once booming region of the United States for the greener pastures (for now) of the south.
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The Great Lakes region is a beautiful part of the United States
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Unparalleled natural areas along with an abundance of freshwater should make this region a huge source of migration
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especially during a time when other regions might be running out of water very soon
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Despite this, people in these states have been consistently leaving for the last few decades
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Here's why. Welcome to Geography by Jeff. I'm your host, Jeff Gibson
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and today we're going to explore an interesting population migration pattern. An area of the United States
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that has one of life's most desired resources, water, is consistently on the losing end of migration
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And more often than not, people leaving this area seem to be moving to areas that would be considered water distressed
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And while that might seem counterintuitive, there's an actual reason for this
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But before we dive into the episode, if you're a fan of geography, be sure to check out my podcast
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Geography is Everything. Each week we take a different topic and explore it through the lens of geography
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This week, we are exploring the geography of wind energy. New episodes premiere every Wednesday and you can listen right here on YouTube
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Substack, or whatever app you use to listen to podcasts. All relevant links are in the description below
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Before we get to why so many people are leaving this region today, we should probably start with the history of how this region grew
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starting with its life as the original Northwest region of the United States. At one point in time, the entire region we're talking about today
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was a primary economic engine for the entire country, with it experiencing a huge migration boom
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All of the states we're talking about in this video were once part of a single region called the Northwest Territory
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Following the Treaty of Paris in 1783, which formally ended the United States' war for independence
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the Northwest Territory was semi-officially ceded by Great Britain to the United States
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But despite this, The United States had a hard time gaining actual control of it
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Various indigenous tribes would fight to keep their lands, and the British army would regularly make appearances in the region
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in an effort to reassert their claims to the territory. It would take a whole new war with Great Britain in 1812
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to finally, once and for all, mark this land as part of the United States
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And once that happened, a huge wave of migration would begin. In 1800, the region would be home to just about 54,000 Americans
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Just 20 years later, nearly 800,000 Americans would migrate to the territory, an increase
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of about 1 And much of this initial migration was due to a concerted effort by the American government to give land to settlers to turn into farms The prospect of free land to settle it turns out is a powerful motivating factor As the territory evolved it was eventually broken
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into different states. Ohio was first granted statehood in 1803, followed by Indiana in 1816
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Illinois in 1818, Michigan in 1837, and finally Wisconsin in 1848. By 1850
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the state of Ohio had surged in population to become the third most populous state behind only
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New York and Pennsylvania. Indiana and Illinois were also growing very quickly, and much of this
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was driven by the Industrial Revolution. The states in the northern half of the country
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but in particular Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, experienced a manufacturing boom driven by the
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likes of the steel industry, the railroad industry, the textiles industry, and the automobile industry
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This region would also be on the receiving end of multiple large migration patterns of Americans
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through the early 1900s. First by African Americans who fled the South's harsh Jim Crow era laws
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leading to the first great migration of African Americans to the North. Then by the migration of rural and dust bowl residents
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from the Great Depression searching for work in factories. And finally, by, once again
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another great migration of African Americans looking to move North away from the Southern states
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By 1970, one out of every five Americans would call these five states home
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But while this region had grown consistently up to this point, something new was on the horizon
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that would lead to a dramatic slowdown in migration and eventually lead to more people moving out
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than moving in. The Great Lakes states were, at one point, the beating heart of American industry and economy
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And because of this, people moved there en masse. Today, under a different kind of economy
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those same states have struggled to maintain their prominence within the country. But before we get to why people are moving
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out of the Great Lakes states, if you're enjoying this video, hit that subscribe button
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More fun geography videos are just a single click away. The Great Lakes states as part of this video have grown since 1970
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Let's get that out of the way right now. But the rate of growth has slowed to a crawl
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and even begun to reverse for a couple of our states in recent years. In 1970, 20% of all Americans lived in these five states
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Today, that number has fallen to about 14%. And much of this slowdown occurred beginning in the year 2000
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Between 2000 and 2010, the region grew by about 1.3 million people
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Between 2010 and 2020 the region grew by another 1 million people But while that sounds like a lot it actually pretty dismal for such a large area To put this in perspective the single state of Florida in 2010 had 18 million people
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By 2020, 3 million additional Americans moved to Florida. The unfortunate reality is that this region
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was a victim of its own success 100 years prior. As the Industrial Revolution kicked off
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manufacturing plants popped up all around the region. Cities such as Detroit, Flint, Indianapolis, Gary, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Cincinnati
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and many, many, many more were powerhouse manufacturing towns in the early and mid-1900s
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This fueled a wave of migration and an economy to match. But starting around 1970, things began changing
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Once stable, high-paying manufacturing jobs began moving to places far away from the United States
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Places where companies could create the same product for far less money, no union labor
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and welcoming governments looking to bring businesses to their distant shores. This would lead to a hollowing out
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of these same once industry-heavy cities. As factories closed, the economy took a huge hit
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And when there's no economy, people tend to move away. Gary, Indiana is perhaps an extreme example
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In 1970, Gary had over 175,000 people living within the city. Today, Gary is home to fewer than 70,000 people
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This exact same scenario has played out in many cities across all five states
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and has led to the states becoming part of the unenviable region called the Rust Belt
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As manufacturing jobs moved overseas to the likes of China and Vietnam, there were no additional jobs to replace them
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And if there are no jobs, people are likely to move to where there are
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In this case, many people moved first to California, and now to Texas and Florida, where the economies are booming
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and the cost of living is still relatively low. While this all seems very doom and gloom for the region as a whole
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a reversal of fortunes could be on their horizon. While today this region is pretty stagnant in terms of migration
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there exists a global event that is starting to shake things up quite a bit, climate change
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In four of the states that grew the most over the last few years, Arizona, Texas, Florida, and South Carolina
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are each going to have to face a reckoning with climate change long before the Great Lakes region will
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This is largely because of where each state is located. In the southwest, both Arizona and Texas are running out of water
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Despite recent rains bringing much-needed relief, climate change is expected to only worsen the mega impacting the region In Florida and South Carolina both states are expected to lose large parts of their coasts as global sea levels rise from the polar ice sheets melting And finally heat waves are expected to get longer and hotter for the entire country
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but this will have a disproportionate impact on the southern states, which are already far warmer
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than the north. And with warmer air comes warmer oceans. And with warmer oceans will come larger
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and more destructive tropical storms and hurricanes. All this is to say, in an age of climate change
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the southern states will face the brunt of the impacts. That's not to say the Great Lakes states won't be impacted
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but they are relatively protected. The Great Lakes themselves house fully 21% of all surface freshwater on the planet
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and climate models have this region actually becoming more comfortable as other states get unbearably hot
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It's for this reason that we are starting to see some people move back to the region as fears of a warming climate and its impacts are starting to be felt
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This would, of course, lead to a resurgence in migration and potentially a second breath of life for the Great Lakes states
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Today, the Great Lakes states remain fairly steady in terms of population overall
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but some are doing better than others. Illinois leads the population of the region with about 12.8 million people
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followed by Ohio with 11.8 million, Michigan with 10.1 million, Indiana with 6.8 million, and Wisconsin with 5.9 million people
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And while the growth of this region as a whole has been fairly anemic in recent decades
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one state has actually started to shrink. Illinois. In 2010, Illinois had about 20,000 more people
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than it did in 2020. And this is largely because of out-migration. Between 2018 and 2019
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117,000 more people moved out of Illinois and 20,000 more people moved out of Michigan
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than moved in. Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin, each did have more people moving in
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but not by much. And this has a huge impact on the overall population of any given region
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Due to a declining birth rate overall, states are relying more and more on external migration
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to keep their populations growing. And without an increase in population, things such as basic infrastructure begin to suffer
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without a tax base to maintain it. The Great Lakes states are a beautiful region of the country
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that is literally overflowing with water. For this reason, there's a lot to be excited about
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for the future of this region. But past economics have hollowed it out a bit
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and, at least for now, people appear to be more eager to leave than move in
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I hope you enjoyed learning more about why people are moving away from the Great Lakes states. If you did, please subscribe to my channel
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And if you want to watch more of my videos, you can do so here. Thanks for watching
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See you next time
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