(A) Municipal corporations, which, at the last federal census, had a population of five thousand or more, or five thousand registered resident electors or resident voters as provided in section 703.011 of the Revised Code, are cities. All other municipal corporations are villages. Cities, which, at any federal census, have a population of less than five thousand, shall become villages. Villages, which, at any federal census, have a population of five thousand or more, shall become cities.

Terms Used In Ohio Code 703.01

  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Population: means that shown by the most recent regular federal census. See Ohio Code 1.59
  • state: means the state of Ohio. See Ohio Code 1.59

(B)(1) No municipal corporation shall have its classification as a village changed to that of a city by virtue of there being counted, in determining the population of that municipal corporation, either of the following:

(a) College or university students in attendance at an educational institution located within the municipal corporation if the residential addresses of those students when not in attendance at the institution, or the residential addresses of the guardians of those students, as determined by the records of the institution kept by its registrar, are at a place other than the municipal corporation in which the institution is located;

(b) Persons under detention in a detention facility located within the municipal corporation if the residential addresses of those persons when not detained in that facility, as determined by the records of the facility, are at a place other than the municipal corporation in which the facility is located.

(2) After each decennial census, the secretary of state shall issue a proclamation certifying the number of permanent residents in a municipal corporation in which a college or university or in which a detention facility is located and the number of students attending a college or university or the number of persons detained in a detention facility located within the municipal corporation.

(3) As used in division (B) of this section, “detention facility” has the same meaning as in section 2921.01 of the Revised Code.