Sim City 4 population growth?

Ive got partially-built residential areas, lots of free commercial space and good crime/safety/health etc but my city's population is declining. Please help!

How big is your city? Commercial won't really take off until your city gets bigger.

I would recommend building more industry to bring in jobs. Just zone medium density industry, as high density will bring in too much pollution. Plus if your education is high and land value is nice (lots of parks mixed in with industrial zones) you'll get high-tech industry which is very low pollution.

Adding more parks can help too. Check the land value & desireability maps to see what areas are good vs. bad.

Keep your tax rates low, like below 7%. 5-6% is good. To do this you might need to cut back on funding for health/fire/police. Do it anyway. I've noticed sims are more likely to move in if the tax rate is lower than if services are good.

Oh yeah and make sure the zones have good water supply. If you struggle to have good water despite building lots of pumps, check each pump to see what their efficiency is. Efficiency slowly degrades over time but they still eat up tax dollars. Destroy the old pumps and build new ones.

Watch the news thing at the bottom of the screen. Sometimes a city will stop growing because comercial wants an airport, or the peple want a stadium, or something like that. The news bar will keep you informed.