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Central Ohio’s future promises growth, momentum, and opportunity. But as the region adds more people, ages, diversifies, and faces mounting pressure on housing, health care, and human services, a harder question is emerging: will the systems we rely on be able to keep up?
Get one of the first public looks at a major new long-range study on human needs in Central Ohio through 2050. Commissioned by Columbus City Council and the Human Service Chamber of Franklin County, an all-new Regionomics report examines how population growth and change are likely to reshape housing, poverty, homelessness, health, disability, workforce participation, and more across the 10-county region.
With experts, we’ll unpack the study’s most urgent findings and explore what they mean for the future of the region. Where will the greatest strain show up first? Who is most at risk of being left behind? And what must public leaders, service providers, and all of us do now to prepare for the needs of a future Central Ohio?
Featuring Michael Corey, Executive Director, The Human Service Chamber of Franklin County; Rhea Cunningham, CEO, Boys & Girls Club of Central Ohio; Columbus City Councilmember Melissa Green; Dr. Bill LaFayette, Owner, Regionomics, with moderator Jordan Laird, Politics and Government Reporter, The Columbus Dispatch, Gannett | USA TODAY NETWORK.
To read the complete new Regionomics report, “Columbus in 2025, 2035, and 2050: A Survey of Human Needs Now and in the Future,” please visit the website of the Human Service Chamber of Franklin County.Â
If you would like to dive more deeply into this topic, our friends at the Columbus Metropolitan Library suggest checking out Another World is Possible: Lessons for America From Around the Globe, by Natasha Hakimi Zapata, 2025.
Photographs by: Ian Alexander Photography
