Greater Ohio Policy Center has conducted a study that shows Ohio is getting older, losing workers and, in fact, losing population in general. Over the past two decades the state’s population has grown by 3% — but that increase is due largely to growth in Columbus. If you remove the state capital from the numbers, the rest of the state has lost population by approximately 1%.

“Much of Ohio functions like a legacy state rather than a rapidly growing place,” the report reads. “As a result, state policy makers need to think differently about the needs and challenges of the Columbus area versus other places in Ohio.”

That doesn’t sound like the kind of state we hear described during economic development announcements — at least one of which will be within easy commuting distance of Columbus.

Researchers lament the condition of the population in places such as Akron, Toledo or Dayton — “legacy cities.”

“Today Ohio’s legacy cities are no longer experiencing precipitous population declines but may still be seeing only marginal population change, be it slow declines, slight growth, or remaining steady,” according to the authors of the report. “These dynamics go hand-in-hand with an aging population and decreased economic vitality.”

Forget “legacy cities” for a moment, if that kind of sluggishness or decline is being felt in Ohio’s more urban areas, public officials must understand the outlook for rural Ohioans — particularly those in Appalachian counties — is worse.

“This region, which has never been densely populated, struggles with many of the same challenges that Ohio’s legacy cities face on top of the effects of an resource extraction economy,” researchers wrote. “Though Appalachia is not a specific focus of this report, several of the solutions offered for Ohio’s legacy cities are also likely to help rural Appalachian cities and town.”

Maybe. But it will take more than an emulation of what MIGHT work in the rest of the state to make real change here. Surely the folks we elect to represent us in Columbus understand that. And, if they do, surely they are thinking of ways to do something about it.