Ohio
Ohio’s current immigrant population much more diverse, still well below national level
The proportion of immigrants in the United States is at its highest level in over a century, but that’s not the case in Ohio.
Around 15% of the national population is comprised of immigrants, compared to around 5% in Ohio, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. The proportion of Ohio’s population that is foreign-born today is far lower than in 1870, when around 14% of Ohioans were immigrants, census data shows.
However, Ohio’s immigrant communities today are far more diverse — representing a larger swath of the globe — than at any previous point in history since the federal government began collecting birthplace data in 1850, the data shows.
As immigration once again shapes up to be a major election issue in 2024, Ohio historians told The Dispatch that current political debates around immigration mirror those from the past.
“I worry as a historian because the rhetoric around (immigration) is often so divisive, and it lacks the larger historical awareness of how we’ve had these conversations before — and the country hasn’t fallen apart,” said Kevin Adams, history department chair at Kent State University.
Ohio’s immigration history
Some of Ohio’s early “immigrants” were members of Native American tribes who were displaced into the area from the east by warfare and European diseases, according to Becky Odom, a curator at The Ohio History Connection. These included tribes like the Lenape (Delaware), who were later uprooted again as white settlers moved into Ohio.
Following Ohio’s statehood in 1803, immigrants from Germany, Great Britain and Ireland made up the bulk of foreign-born Ohioans, according to Ben Baughman, another curator for the Ohio History Connection. Germans and Irish people played important roles in the construction of Ohio’s extensive canals, which served as thoroughfares for commerce long before the coming of interstate highways.
By 1860, nearly half of all immigrants living in Ohio were German, with the rest mostly coming from elsewhere in northwestern Europe, according to census data.
But in the late 19th century, immigration to the U.S. underwent a dramatic shift, with more southern and eastern Europeans arriving.
“The new immigration was really important in places like Cleveland, especially as various European ethnic groups showed up … (building) communities rooted around … factories … their own churches, their own parishes — we get increasing numbers of Jews and Eastern Orthodox Christians,” said Adams.
By 1910, nearly 15% of Americans and almost 13% of Ohioans were foreign-born, a figure that does not include children of immigrants born locally.
But the U.S. began to restrict immigration in the 1910s, culminating in country-specific quotas that were set in 1924, according to Adams. The quotas, which were influenced by eugenics and “scientific racism,” severely restricted immigration from much of the world besides northwestern Europe and — unintentionally — overland immigration from Latin America, he said.
The quota system was finally dismantled by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which allowed a much broader range of people to immigrate.
Since 1970, the U.S. has experienced a dramatic rebound in immigration, but the rebound has been slower and smaller in Ohio, according to census data. The proportion of immigrants in the state grew from 2.4% in 1990 to 4.9% in 2022, according to the census’ American Community Survey.
Nationally, around half of foreign-born U.S. residents today come from Latin America, followed by Asia (around 31%), Europe (approximately 11%) and Africa (around 5%).
Most of Ohio’s foreign-born residents come from Asia, with India the top country of origin. African and Latin American immigrants together make up over one-third of Ohio’s immigrants.
Persecution, opportunity and anti-immigrant sentiment
The factors that draw immigrants to Ohio — such as economic opportunity, freedom from persecution and war abroad — have remained fairly constant over the centuries, according to Odom, the Ohio History Connection curator.
“For us as students of history, history is very cyclical. … There are always going to be people in the world who see this state and this country as a place of opportunity,” she said.
Baughman, her colleague, said that anti-immigration sentiment is as old as immigration itself.
Baughman pointed to examples of anti-German riots led by the “Know-Nothing Party” in Cincinnati in 1855, followed by rising anti-Irish and anti-Chinese sentiment in the late 1800s.
Amidst the Great Migration following World War I, Black migrants from the American South to northern states like Ohio encountered opposition similar to immigrants from abroad, said Odom.
Adams said that labor groups were historically more critical of immigration than they are today, because they sometimes saw immigrants as competitors with American workers.
“In the early 1970s … folks on the left — union folks and African American civil rights groups — were interested in discussing immigration restriction, whereas those on the right, who were interested in capitalist market development and anti-union politics, were in favor of immigration,” he said.
Brian Hayashi, who is a professor of American history at Kent State, said he sees common intellectual roots between current opposition to immigration and the anti-immigrant fervor of the early 20th century.
“There is a desire to understand the United States as a nation of northern and western European people and values … But the problem is the United States isn’t that country anymore, and arguably, it hasn’t been since about 1880,” Hayashi said.
Peter Gill covers immigration, New American communities and religion for the Dispatch in partnership with Report for America. You can support work like his with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America at:bit.ly/3fNsGaZ.
pgill@dispatch.com
PAULDING, Onio (WANE) – From the coastline along Maine to the Washington State shore, Jesse Ward is riding his bike across America.
The 4,300-mile trip is along the northern part of the United States.
The trip started on May 6 in Bangor, Maine. He hopes to reach his final destination of Anacortes, Washington in early August.
WANE 15 ran into Ward in Paulding, Ohio last week. He was almost back to his hometown of Payne, Ohio to visit family along his quest.
Ward, who now lives in Ashville, North Carolina, got into cycling in college and decided to go for a coast-to-coast trip about five years ago.
“As I was looking at different routes, following the Northern Tier route, I noticed that it actually went through my hometown, so that was pretty appealing, and it’s going through a lot of states I’ve never been to or thought about, so I thought that would be a great way to discover and see the country,” Ward said.
A tradition of cross-country rides is to dip the bike tires in one ocean at the beginning of the journey and dip them in the other ocean at the end. From Bangor, Ward rode to Bar Harbor, Maine to see the ocean before heading west again.
“I’ve never been to the Pacific, so I’ll swim, and I know that they have quite a few ferries that go up to the islands there, so I want to go discover some of that stuff too, but probably take a day off,” he laughed.
His road bike is designed to absorb road vibration and carry heavy loads. It also has 27 gears to help with climbs.
Ward is staying at hotels, AirBnBs and camping along the way.
He pushes through the challenges,
“Rainy days with lots of climbing are the hardest,” he said. “Back in New Hampshire and Vermont, I had about two and a half days of rain, and I had the most climbing during that spell as well.”
And he soaks in the majestic moments along the way.
“Niagara Falls, definitely. I went over to the Canadian side and saw the falls from there, and it was first time I’ve ever done that, so that was a really rewarding experience, like just felt like, you know, the peak of the mountain. It’s like you’re here. This is a really good, finale for that section of the country,” he said.
As of June 12, Ward was about half way finished and in Iowa. When his trip is over, he plans to take a train from Seattle back to Charlotte.
“Then I’ll either bike back home or I have some friends with trucks. They can come pick me up,” Ward laughed.
Multiple days of strong storms target the Midwest
From serious dangers in North Dakota on Tuesday to Illinois on Thursday, this week could cause major weather problems across the north-central section of the country.
The summer weather in Ohio could be hot with a mix of rainy and dry conditions, recent storms have hit the Buckeye State as summer looms. Those storms led to flood warnings in Franklin County after Memorial Day and flooding risk near Cincinnati in June.
Where exactly is all the moisture coming from? What is causing the cloud cover and rainy days? Here’s what we know.
Why is it raining so much in Ohio? The climate is ever-changing
The Earth keeps getting warmer – and it’s bringing precipitation to the Buckeye State.
As the atmosphere gets warmer, evaporation increases, which brings increased humidity, average rainfall,the frequency of heavy rainstorms as well as droughts, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
The agency also states that the average annual precipitation in the Midwest has increased by 5% to 10% over the last half century, rainfall during the four wettest days of the year has increased by 35%, and water flowing in most streams during the worst flood of the year has increased by 20%, according to their data from 2016.
Spring brought repeated storm systems to Ohio, Great Lakes
As the region moved into spring, the Great Lakes have remained a focal point for severe weather stretching from Minnesota to Pennsylvania.
That’s because warm, moisture-rich air lifting north from the Gulf repeatedly collides with lingering cooler air across the northern part of the country, creating a persistent corridor for storm development, said AccuWeather Meteorologist Chad Merrill.
Nearly every week since early March 2026, the Storm Prediction Center has outlined multiple consecutive days of severe weather threats in the Great Lakes, driven by a recurring setup in which the jet stream positions the region along a storm track where unstable air and Gulf moisture overlap. Combined, those conditions allow storms to organize quickly and intensify as they move across the region.
“I think we’ve seen it before, but not this time of the year,” Pastelok said of the early spring storms. “Keep in mind. The Gulf hasn’t even been opened up … That’s what’s unusual for this time of year.”
Why severe weather has targeted the Great Lakes
The active weather patterns across the Great Lakes and central U.S. earlier this year was not driven by a single anomaly, but by a series of large-scale atmospheric factors that repeatedly aligned and reset in similar positions.
At the center of that setup is the jet stream – the fast-moving river of air that steers storm systems across North America. When it becomes more amplified, dipping sharply south in some areas and bulging north in others, storm systems can slow and repeatedly track along the same corridors rather than spreading more evenly across the country.
Another key ingredient is the status of El Niño-Southern Oscillation conditions, Pastelok said. ENSO happens when the temperatures of the Pacific Ocean are transitioning from La Niña, which brings cooler sea surface temperatures, to El Niño, which brings cooler ocean temperatures. Both can influence atmospheric weather across the U.S., according to NOAA.
“What was different is that we’re seeing El Niño coming on a little faster,” Pastelok said. “The La Niña weakened very, very fast, and so the overall positioning of the jet stream may tend to be farther north than it usually is for this time of the year.”
Cincinnati Children’s is expanding its access to care across the region, including in Northern Kentucky.
The health system reported in its latest Community Impact Report, released to the public June 9, that six new locations opened in 2025, including facilities in previously underserved communities such as Clermont and Clinton counties. Rural areas often have limited access to specialized and emergency care, placing residents at a higher risk of health challenges and death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here are the new locations:
- Brandon and Kelly Janszen Union Building, 2015 Children’s Way, Union, Kentucky.
- Crestview Hills Urgent Care, 2765 Chapel Place, Crestview Hills, Kentucky.
- Children’s Eastgate, 4315 Ivy Pointe Blvd., Union Township, Ohio.
- Loveland Primary Care, 10554 Loveland-Madeira Road, Loveland, Ohio.
- Wilmington Primary Care, 1150 W. Locust St., Suite 500, Wilmington, Ohio.
- New Richmond School-Based Health Center, 1135 Bethel-New Richmond Road, New Richmond, Ohio.
Cincinnati Children’s is one of the top-ranked children’s hospitals in the Midwest. The medical professionals at the system’s more than 50 sites provided care in 1.75 million encounters with patients during the July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025 fiscal year, spokesman Barrett Brunsman said.
Some locations are first of their kind
In Boone County, the Brandon and Kelly Janszen building opened at the hospital’s Union location in April 2025, becoming the first in Northern Kentucky to offer both primary and specialty care, including offering behavioral health counselors, lab services, X-ray and ultrasound.
In Kenton County, the hospital opened its first urgent care in Northern Kentucky in July 2025 as part of renovations at the Crestview Hills location, offering residents access to pediatric providers on evenings and weekends.
In Ohio, the Eastgate location opened in October, combining specialty clinics, outpatient surgery and an urgent care center in “the first of its kind on the East Side for Cincinnati Children’s,” where some main campus surgeons and providers now see patients, Brunsman said.
Two primary care centers also opened in 2025: Wilmington, the only primary care in Clinton County dedicated exclusively to children from newborns through teens; and Loveland, which offers closer care to families who once drove farther.
Cincinnati Children’s also introduced the New Richmond School-Based Health Center in September 2025, after reporting over 7,000 patient encounters in 2023 from the village’s ZIP code, including 2,375 without an identified primary care provider, Brunsman said. The new health center is within walking distance for 1,000 middle and high school students, and is open to their families and other children in the community.
The school-based center was funded by a grant from Ohio’s Appalachian Community Innovation Centers program, obtained by New Richmond Schools. Across the other five new locations, Cincinnati Children’s invested around $141 million in renovations, design and acreage, the hospital noted.
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