Local leaders say the population decline in the Rockford motivates them to work harder and do more.

Rockford is now the fifth largest city in Illinois, according to new Census numbers. Rockford lost 749 residents from July 2016 to July 2017, which allowed Naperville to pass the Forest City in population. According to the newly released data, Rockford also lost 1,200 workers from the workforce during that same time period.

Now, local leaders say it’s important to make it known all that Rockford has to offer and step up to bring more people into our region.

City Administrator Todd Cagnoni says this decline in population was something they saw coming after the housing crash in 2008.

"We were hit pretty hard as a community, not only in the city of Rockford but the region as a whole in the 2008 housing crisis," Cagnoni said.

However, Cagnoni says that since 2008, the housing market has started to bounce back, and some redevelopment projects are in the works. He says Rockford is seeing some improvement and he believes with time, the Rockford region will level out with the help of some improvements.

"Reducing our property taxes, creating employment opportunities, raising property values, and having a low unemployment rate," Cagnoni said.

But the Rockford community has some serious issues to overcome, from its high violent crime rate, to some of the highest property tax rates in the country.

Meanwhile, Winnebago County Chairman Frank Haney says improving the communication with residents and visitors about what Rockford has to offer is something leaders need to work on.

"The plan is to engage our young professionals, our young folks about the future of our community. We need to make sure that we are working and building a great message to sell ourselves to businesses," Haney said. "We need to tell our story better, both internally and externally,"

Both Haney and Cagnoni believe these issues will take some time to improve on, and won’t happen overnight. As for now, leaders say there is plenty of work to do.

"We do have to continue to be aggressive in our outreach, to tell our story, and to build a great economic development plan, together across entities," Haney said.

Rockford isn’t the only city whose population is declining. 39 or the state’s biggest cities all lost population in this Census report. Chicago lead the state’s population loss with a decline of more than 3,800 people and now is at risk of losing the title of third largest city in the U.S. to Houston.