CLEVELAND, Ohio -- New estimates released by the Census Bureau today say that Cleveland lost more residents during the 15 months from the April 2010 census to July 2011 than any other city except Detroit.

The estimated change, however, is small. Cleveland's population fell by 3,009 from 396,815 to an estimated 393,806. And the methods for the annual city estimates are not as precise as the decennial census.

Nevertheless, the U.S. Census Bureau projects that the trend of population losses continued for Cleveland and many other large cities throughout Ohio and the Midwest.

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Detroit's loss totaled an estimated 7,192, as the Motor City fell to 706,585.

Among cities with at least 100,000 residents, four of the 11 biggest drops by percent involved Ohio cities. Cleveland fell 0.8 percent, Toledo and Akron slipped 0.4 percent each, and Cincinnati dropped 0.2 percent.

And among the same group of large cities, six of the seven fastest growing are in Texas. Round Rock, Austin, Plano, McKinney, Frisco and Denton all grew by at least 3.4 percent.

"These numbers provide further evidence of the continuation of the trend of rapid population growth in Texas we observed between the 2000 and 2010 censuses," Census Bureau Director Robert Groves said in releasing the new estimates.

No. 1 for growth at 4.9 percent was New Orleans, a city decimated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The city has recovered to 360,740, but remains well below the 455,000 people who called New Orleans home before the storm.

America's largest city, New York, added the most people with 69,777, increasing the city's population 0.9 percent to 8,244,910. Ohio's largest city, Columbus, picked up an estimated 10,361 residents to reach 797,437.

In Greater Cleveland, estimated changes were small outside of Cleveland. Places growing the fastest included Brunswick, up 186 to 34,441; Medina, up 144 to 26,822; Wadsworth, up 116 to 21,683; and Lorain up 55 to 64,152.

Ohio's largest cities

Most of Ohio's largest cities are estimated to have lost population since the census in April 2010.

Rank City July 2011 estimate Change Percent 1 Columbus 797,434 10,361 1.3% 2 Cleveland 393,806 -3,009 -0.8% 3 Cincinnati 296,223 -727 -0.2% 4 Toledo 286,038 -1,170 -0.4% 5 Akron 198,402 -708 -0.4% 6 Dayton 142,148 621 0.4% 7 Parma 80,968 -633 -0.8% 8 Canton 72,919 -95 -0.1% 9 Youngstown 66,571 -411 -0.6% 10 Lorain 64,152 55 0.1%

Local cities losing the most in addition to Cleveland were Akron with a loss of 708 to 198,402; Parma, down 633 to 80,968; Lakewood, down 407 to 51,724; and Euclid, down 379 to 48,541.

The Census Bureau has more precise methods to determine county population estimates, basing those in large part on birth, death and migration records.

The data available for cities is different and less precise. Census 2010 results showed that in many cases, the previous annual estimates were off the mark for cities more than counties in Ohio.

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