BUFFALO (WBEN) - The populations of both Buffalo and Erie County are on the rise for the first time in decades, according to the latest data from the 2020 Census report.
The population of Buffalo currently stands at 278,349, up from 261,275 in 2010, and also the first period of growth since the 1950 Census. As for Erie County, the population increased from 919,040 to 954,236.
"It's the first time Erie County's population has grown since 1970," said Poloncarz Thursday. "That should really send a message about what we've been saying for quite some time - that Erie County is back and growing, and now we have the proof of it with the Census data. What's nice is that the City of Buffalo grew, but so did some of the suburbs, so did some of the rural areas, so it's not like we lost it one area and it just moved to another - we saw growth across the entire county."
"We are certainly very pleased with this growth in population in the City of Buffalo, bringing our population up over 278,000 people," said Mayor Byron Brown at a Thursday afternoon press conference. "Getting a complete and accurate count was critically important to the population growth being recorded properly."
Brown attributed the growth in population to low tax rates and the increased focus on building affordable housing.
"When you keep taxes down, you keep people in town," Brown began. "Buffalo is a very affordable city - it's affordable for people who have lived here for some time, and for newcomers of all backgrounds, they see an opportunity to own homes, to buy properties, to invest in businesses..."
On top of the obvious reasons why having a growing as opposed to declining population is a good thing, Poloncarz noted that an increased population will have a direct influence on representation at the state and federal levels, which will result in a greater allocation of dollars for the county.
"While New York is going to lose one congressional seat, we should not lose a congressional seat in Erie County," said Poloncarz. "We have two congressional representatives right now - there's three in Western New York - based on the increase in population here and knowing there was a decrease in other counties across New York State, we should not lose a congressional representative, and tuthfully, we should have more representation in both the Senate and Assembly in Albany.
"We estimate that, based on federal funding, every person brings in a couple hundred thousand (dollars) per year," Poloncarz continued. "That's $2 million over a 10-year period. If you extrapolate out 35,000 more people, that's over $70 billion of additional federal aid that will come into our region through different types of programs - senior programs, social services programs, programs for homeland security, so that's a lot of assistance that will be coming to our region that we would not have otherwise received in the next 10 years."
