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===Recent history=== Lake County's population peaked at 546,000 in 1970. Severe industrial decline took place during the 1973-1991 period, brought on by foreign competition, new management philosophies that called for major workforce reductions, and productivity gains from technology. The decline was particularly intense in the steel industry: steel employment exceeded 60,000 in the 1960s, and declined progressively to just 18,000 by 2015. Lake County's population declined 13% to bottom out at 475,000 in 1990. The industrial decline of the 1980s cast a long shadow over Lake County: the county did not regain the level of employment it had in 1980 until 1996, after which the employment level roughly flatlined. The county's economic output peaked in 1978, and has not since recovered, remaining 15-20% below the peak after adjusting for inflation. As prosperity declined, so did the immigration that powered the county's explosive population growth before 1950: per the 2000 census, only 5.3% of Lake County's residents were foreign-born, compared to over 11% for the United States as a whole.<ref name="auto1">{{cite web |title=Northwest Indiana Regional Analysis: Demographics, Economy, Entrepreneurship and Innovation |url=http://cua6.urban.csuohio.edu/publications/center/center_for_economic_development/Northwest_Indiana_Consolidated_Final.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160325095244/http://cua6.urban.csuohio.edu/publications/center/center_for_economic_development/Northwest_Indiana_Consolidated_Final.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 25, 2016 |publisher=Cleveland State University |access-date=October 5, 2018 }}</ref> The population recovered somewhat during the 1990s and 2000s, as the local economy adjusted. Suburban growth has also been driven by commuter populations of workers who are employed in Chicago and commute via expressways or the [[South Shore Line]]. In 2007, it was estimated that 44,000 workers commuted from Lake County, Indiana, to Chicago for work.<ref name="auto1" /> The decline of industrial cities and growth of suburbs has been so sharp, that by 1990 a majority of the county's population lived outside of the four traditional industrial cities. Lake County still continues to struggle with urban decline and poverty, suburban sprawl and traffic jams, and a stagnating population.<ref name="auto"/>
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