NEW PARIS — Neil Hoffman, the mayor of this small village in western Preble County, tells a story of economic woe that echoes across the state.

According to newly released population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, his rural village of some 1,500 souls just north of Interstate 70 near the Indiana border has lost the largest share of population of any city or village in the eight-county Dayton region.

The annual estimates, released today, July 10, show New Paris has lost more than 9 percent of its population, or 153 people, this decade.

While critics say the Census Bureau's estimates for smaller communities has problems, Hoffman, a 50-year-old tool and die maker who was born and raised in the village, doesn't dispute the trend.

"It's a simple fact that this is a border town with Indiana," Hoffman said Wednesday. "And most of the people here worked in the factories in Richmond. You had Wayne Works Corporation go out, Perfect Circle Corporation go under. You had Alcoa, AVCO, Nadco. All these corporations left, and most of the people in this area worked there.

"And naturally the people are going to go where they can get work. So the kids and the people are moving on, and I hate that."

Hoffman said the village is working with Jackson Twp. to get some economic development going near the interstate, but it's not easy.

"We're like everyone else. We're trying to get some help and get pointed in the right direction," he said.

New Paris is one of 70 cities and villages in the Dayton region that showed population loss for the decade, according the new estimates. In total, the 108 cities and villages in the region grew by less than a half a percentage point, or fewer than 5,000 people, to reach just more than 1 million.

Many of the population losers were in the central and western areas of the region, which includes Montgomery, Miami, Clark, Greene, Warren, Butler, Preble and Darke counties.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2393 or kmccall@DaytonDailyNews.com.