Lakewood Ohio City Guide

Lakewood, Ohio is located on the southern side of Lake Erie. As the 3rd largest city in Cuyahoga County, Lakewood is home to around 52,131 residents and consists of 6.69 square miles. Impressively, Lakewood has won national acclaim, multiple awards, and several titles.

Travel + Leisure Magazine named Lakewood as one of the Top 10 Suburbs in the United States, and Business Week awarded Lakewood the title of The Best Place to Raise Kids. Additionally, Inside Business Magazine gave the City of Lakewood Department of Planning & Development an award for economic development.

Lakewood earned its nickname, “City of Beautiful Homes,” from its intentional design in the early 1900s to include grand housing options with lakeside views. Today, the city has a range of properties and attractions that appeal to many different tastes and lifestyles.

Considering its varied attractive attributes, it makes sense why Lakewood is routinely named as one of the Best Hometowns in Ohio by Ohio Magazine.

Compared with other Ohio cities, Lakewood’s population is largely diverse and educated.

48.9% of residents are male, and 51.1% are female. As for ethnic background, 82.1% are white, 6.7% are black, 5.1% are Hispanic, 4.3% are biracial, 1.6% are Asian, and .1% are Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders.

93.9% of residents 25 years and over have at least a high school degree, and 43.7% hold a bachelor’s degree or above. Only 4.9% of residents are unemployed, and the majority of residents prefer to rent rather than own their property.

The majority of Lakewood residents belong to the democratic party.

Because the American government made a treaty with local Native Americans in 1785, no American citizens were allowed to live west of the Cuyahoga River. Early settlers explored east of the river until a treaty was made with Native American leaders to lease land west of the Cuyahoga River.

Due to a new treaty being drawn up at the cost of $5,000, settlers permanently inhabited the territory starting on July 4, 1805. Included in this treaty was the land that later became Lakewood.

In 1805, Lakewood began as Township 7, Range 14. Known for being a heavily wooded area, only 18 families lived in this township in 1819. From there, settlers came in droves.

Lakewood was officially established as one of Cleveland’s historic streetcar suburbs in 1889. Population growth led to Lakewood becoming a village made up of 3,500 residents in 1903. In 1930, Lakewood had a population of 70,509.

As an award-winning district, Lakewood City School District is focused on providing students with top-quality education for the 21st century.

Named as one of the Best Communities for Music Education from 2016-2019, this district also focuses on sports, enriching programming, and community engagement so students continue to learn outside of classrooms.

This school district is comprised of around 5,000 students. Campuses include 7 elementary schools that serve grades pre-kindergarten through 5th, 2 middle schools that educate students from 6th to 8th grade, one high school that spans from 9th to 12th grade, and one community charter school.

The average student to teacher ratio is 17-1, and Niche.com ranks the district as #20 out of 608 Ohio school districts in terms of being most diverse.

Students often praise the district’s schools for creating welcoming learning environments, engaging programs, and a wide range of opportunities overseen by involved teachers and staff members.

The total cost of living in Lakewood tracks as being around 10.2% less than the national average. However, it is more expensive to live in this lakeside city than other areas of the state.

The median home cost tracks around $183K, which is high compared to Ohio’s average of $140K. In addition to housing expenses, groceries and transportation costs also rank higher than statewide averages.

However, utility and healthcare expenses compare favorably with the state’s averages. Specifically related to the Greater Cleveland Area, Lakewood falls on the more affordable side of the cost of living spectrum.