Ohio: The Buckeye State

Ohio is located in the Midwestern United States, bordering Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes, to the north. Inhabited by Native American Indian tribes prior to exploration by France and Britain in the late 1600’s, Ohio was claimed as British territory at the conclusion of the French and Indian War in 1763. It was part of the Northwest Territory, established after the American Revolution in 1787. Ohio was admitted as a state on March 1, 1803. During the Civil War, Ohio sided with the Union but its populace had mixed feelings about slavery. Ohio saw little Civil War action in its boundaries – a Confederate cavalry raid in 1863 in which nearly all Confederate participants were captured. Upon the conclusion of the Civil War, industry expanded rapidly in Ohio. Ohio emerged as a key manufacturing center for machinery and furniture. Shipping of coal and iron ore via Lake Erie expanded, and farming continued to be a leading economic driver. As a consequence of the Great Depression in 1929, nearly half of workers in Ohio lost their jobs. During World War II, Ohio was a major producer of airplanes, battle ships, and weapons. Ohio industry saw continued expansion after World War II. Aluminum and chemical manufacturing became part of the state’s economic base. Today Ohio is the ninth most populous U.S. state. Ohio tends to be a bellwether state for U.S. political elections as well as a swing state. Ohio’s economy has suffered over the past several decades as manufacturing has moved offshore to lower cost environments, and the state has experienced stagnant population growth recently. The term “buckeye” refers to Ohio residents and derives from the buckeye tree, which produces a distinctive nut.

Economy: Diverse, Still a Manufacturing Power House

Ohio’s economy is quite diverse today. Manufacturing, finance, education, health care, trade and transportation, utilities, and agriculture are all economic contributors. Despite the challenges it has faced in manufacturing, Ohio remains the third largest manufacturer by gross domestic product of all U.S. states. Its economy is the seventh largest in the U.S. overall. Ohio is home to 59 of the top 1,000 publicly traded companies in the U.S., and is the headquarters location for Procter & Gamble, Goodyear Tire & Rubber, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Wendy's.

Education: The Hot Campuses in Ohio

Ohio has an educated populace. As of 2000, roughly 83% of its residents aged 25 and older had completed high school, slightly above the U.S. national average, and over 21% had completed college, slightly below the U.S. national average. There are 194 institutions of higher education in Ohio. Prominent among these is Ohio State University, which enrolls over 63,000 students, with nearly 90 percent of those at its main Columbus campus. Other Ohio State University branch locations include Lima, Mansfield, Marion, Newark, and Wooster. Other selected institutions of higher learning in Ohio include: Bowling Green State University, Denison University, Kent State University, Kenyon College, Miami University of Ohio, Oberlin College, Wright State University, and the University of Cincinnati.

The Crime Scene in Ohio: Up and Down

Ohio has seen a mostly downward trend in crime over this past decade. Overall violent crime and other forms of crime have been declining steadily for two nearly decades after reaching all-time highs in the early 1990’s. In 2006, Ohio ranked 27th among U.S. states for violent crimes with 350 per 100,000 population.

The Ohio Population – Political Bellwether, Generally Picks the Presidential Winner

Ohio has a population of 11.5 million. Its population has been growing very slowly, at a rate of 0.2% per year in the past decade. Despite a Republican dominated phase of big city boss management in the late 1800’s, Ohio generally has a history of splitting its votes among Democrats and Republicans. Among more than 5.6 million votes cast in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Ohio voters chose Democratic candidate Barack Obama over Republican candidate John McCain by a ratio of 52% to 47%. Ohio has a well-deserved reputation for being a political bell-whether state, having voted for the winning U.S. presidential candidate in all but two presidential elections since 1904.