No IRC demand: city won't grow and citizens leave the city
Solution 1:
This is because your city is clogged with old people, let me explain, when the children grow up to young adults they get tired of living in the houses with those old people who were young when you started this new game, so the present young adults leave the city while the old people live in the city alone, making new residential areas would make your resident move from house to house, thus solving your problem(plus your population would increase behind your back, make sure that your services are strong enough to handle the population increase).