It's not all negative. At least a few places fared OK. Here's an article from the Cornell Daily Sun:
Tompkins County Grows 5 Percent, Adds 5,000 Residents Over 10 Years
Topics: Tompkins County, collegetown, census
2010 U.S. Census shows decline for other N.Y. State counties
April 4, 2011
By Max Schindler
While Tompkins County remained an island of growth — adding 5,000 people — the neighboring counties, Cayuga, Schuyler, Chemung and Tioga saw sharp decreases in size. Seventeen upstate N.Y. counties reported losing residents.
According to the new census, 101,564 people live in Tompkins County. Of that, an estimated 30,000 students attend Ithaca College, Cornell University and Tompkins Cortland Community College. The census also reported that Asian American and multiracial populations grew faster than the white population in the area and now make up more than 20 percent of the county.
The City of Ithaca grew by 2.5 percent to a total of 30,014 residents, while the Town of Ithaca increased almost 10 percent to 19,930 people.
Collegetown especially swelled in the past decade — increasing by 22 percent, or 1,000 additional residents — to a total of 5,600 people.
Tompkins County Legislator Pam Mackesey ’89 (D-District 1) attributed the sharp rise in the neighborhood’s population to recent construction projects.
“Nobody was surprised that Collegetown increased due to all the development and the apartments that have been built in the past 10 to 15 years,” Mackesey said. ...................................
Here's the rest of the article
http://www.cornelldailysun.com/secti...-over-10-years