Youngstown really is depleting that rapidly. It was almost 50% larger at the 1990 census than the most recent, 2010, 2 censuses apart. Some suburbs are growing, particularly around Columbus.
Looks to me as if Ohioans generally try to give West Virginia as wide a berth as possible. At least that's what I can glean by looking at the map... and knowing what I know about West Virginia.
At one time cities like Ironton and Portsmouth were very important manufacturing centers. Unfortunately, they have seen decline because of jobs being moved out of our country. The pig iron industry was what made Ironton many years ago. Now it's practically a ghost town.
Don't knock WV. I've lived there 20 years, and have met some of the nicest people. I'm originally from Ohio. WV has had some bad leadership, but there are still good people there.
I grew up near Pittsburgh in western PA. WV was where I went to work on Habitat for Humanity projects with my church, ride ATVs with my high school friends, and, on one memorable Friday night, attend a Wheeling Nailers hockey game (my work buddy scored them along with a hotel room in some kind of giveaway). When we got back from the game, we went to the hotel bar and asked what people did for fun around here. The bartender replied, "they mostly go to Pittsburgh."
As Europeean, when I do a State City quiz, I can easily find the 4-5 first, and then I randomly write some europeean cities. It almost always works for 1 or 2 :D
I don't mind the Ohio jokes too much. And ThisOneNerd, keep playing viola! Don't let people who pick on you for playing an instrument. They wish they could play viola...
http://www.jetpunk.com/user-quizzes/103225/ohio-cities-a-z
Really need to work on my US geography