CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The city continues to lose population but at a slower pace than recent years, brightening prospects for the decennial census underway.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city lost 2,658 people in 2009 as the population fell to 431,363. It was the largest numerical drop among America's major cities.

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Those numbers are only estimates based largely on housing statistics. The official count will come out early next year, when results of the ongoing door-to-door census are known.

Still, the census bureau's annual population estimates offer a glimpse into a larger trend, one that may finally be turning Cleveland's way.

After losing an estimated 1 percent of its people year to year for much of the decade, Cleveland saw its rate of decline lessen last year to about 0.6 percent.

It may be that most everyone with the means and the desire to leave the city is gone and the population is stabilizing, said Mark Salling, director of the Northern Ohio Data and Information Service at Cleveland State University.

"The bleeding has definitely slowed," Salling said. "Our rate of loss has really tapered off in the last few years."

Salling said the numbers--the last estimates for cities before the 2010 census is completed--suggests Cleveland will not see a headline-grabbing population loss in the national headcount.

"We should stay above 400,000," he said.

Since 2000, Cleveland has lost nearly 10 percent of its population, or 45,000 people.

But Cleveland is no longer first in percentage decline, as it has been for much of the decade. That dubious distinction now goes to Flint, Mich., which lost 1.2 percent of its people last year.

Akron also saw its rate of decline slow in 2009, to 0.3 percent, which mirrors the rate of decline in Summit County. Since 2000, Akron has lost about 4 percent of its population, or 9,600 people, to fall to 207,216 people.

Akron and Cleveland anchor a region that saw its population stagnate this decade despite growth and new construction in outer suburbs like Avon, Twinsburg and Medina.

The census estimates indicate the region's newer, growing communities are simply siphoning residents from older cities and suburbs, not drawing new people to Northeast Ohio.

In March, the census bureau estimated the Cleveland-Akron metro area lost 0.1 percent of its people last year, meaning the regional population was virtually unchanged. Cuyahoga County, meanwhile, lost 0.6 percent of its people, the second fast rate of decline among America's major counties.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: rsmith@plaind.com, 216-999-4024