Ocean City Among Nation's Fastest Shrinking Populations

OCEAN CITY, N.J. — Ocean City might be America's Happiest Seaside Resort, but one report says it's also home to New Jersey's fastest-shrinking population.

Ocean City's population reduced 4.8 percent from 2010 to 2018, making it the nation's 11th fastest shrinking city, according to USA TODAY. The report states Ocean City has the steepest population decline of any New Jersey metro area.

Much of the population decline came from deaths outnumbering births. About one in four Ocean City residents are 65 or older, compared to just 14.9 percent of Americans.

Ocean City boasts the highest median household income on the top-25 list at $63,332. But Ocean City also had an unemployment rate of 13 percent in 2018 — 2.7 percent higher than in 2010. New Jersey's unemployment rate is 4.1 percent, and the nation's is 3.9 percent, the report states.

The city population has decreased faster in that span than cities such as Flint, Mich. Flint's population has decreased 4.2 percent from 2010-18, with much of the mass exodus likely tied to the water contamination crisis that began in 2014, the report states.

Vineland-Bridgeton is the 22nd fastest-shrinking metro area. The metro area's population has shrunk 3.7 percent in that timespan. The unemployment rate in the area is 7.5 percent, according to the report. Vineland-Bridgeton is the only other New Jersey area in the top-25 list.

24/7 Wall Street, a USA TODAY content partner, reviewed population change from July 2010 to July 2018 — the latest data available. Figures for births, deaths and international and domestic migration come from that population data.

Employment change between April 2010 and July 2018 came from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. Median household income, poverty rate, SNAP recipiency rate and demographic data are five-year averages from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2017 American Community Survey.

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