Minnesota is population magnet

Census puts state's growth ahead of neighbors

Published: September 18, 2003 in the Star Tribune
Edition: METRO
Section: NEWS
Page#: 1B

By David Peterson, Staff Writer

In the North Shore hamlet of Schroeder, Minn., Kathy Lawrence sells lattes to passing tourists who mark their hometowns on a huge wall map in her shop.

The marks turn the milling masses of shorts and polo shirts into Fridleyites and Texans and even Australians: so many people from so many places that much of the nation became a smear of ink.

Think of Kathy Lawrence's map, the new life she has built since moving to the North Shore two years ago and the Bulgarian immigrant who works in her shop when you consider recent Census data showing that Minnesota continues to grow far faster than its neighbors.

Between 2000 and 2002, Minnesota attracted more new residents than its four adjacent states combined, according to population estimates released today.

An estimated 100,000 new arrivals pushed the state's population past the 5 million mark.

The state stands in especially stark contrast to North Dakota, which lost population; to South Dakota, which is stagnant; and to Iowa, which is gaining minorities but losing white residents.

According to the government's breakdown of population growth by race and ethnicity, Minnesota added more new residents in all categories except Hispanics, where it tied with Wisconsin.

The difference, said Iowa State sociologist Paul Lasley, has a lot to do with accidents of geography, such as Minnesota's location along that magnificent North Shore. The same scenic beauty that lured Lawrence to open her bakery and entices tourists to the area also attracts permanent residents, who boost local populations and economies.

``We have some of the same thing along the Mississippi River,'' he said, ``but you have a lot more water. The further you get from water, the more you find traditional rural communities. When you're near the water, the affluence is such that you can't hardly buy a cup of real coffee these days, it's all lattes and cappuccinos.''

Census 2000 found that the region from roughly Bemidji in Minnesota's northwest, across the lakes to the Arrowhead and through the pine country of northern Wisconsin and Michigan was by far the nation's most robust rural area outside of the South and West.

The Midwest's lake country attracts retirees in part because technology is allowing people to do things there that they couldn't in the past, said Dan Kaercher, editor in chief of the Des Moines-based Midwest Living magazine.

``If you're in love with the lake cottage you can pull up and go live there and work by computer. Plus, for retirees, it's not the ideal any longer for everyone to go to Phoenix or Florida,'' Kaercher said. ``Retiring north means you're not as far from the family, and there's cable, satellite, snowmobiles, all this stuff we didn't have a generation ago. So there's this mini-retirement wave to the north.''

If the growing lakes counties are giving a boost to states like Minnesota, however, it's also true that the Twin Cities area remains the state's most powerful engine of growth, continuing to build on its own natural advantages such as access to waterways to ship grain and other goods, Lasley said.

``There's a reason Mason City is 30,000 and you are 3 million, and those two are never going to trade places,'' he said.

Latte economy

But it is the growing presence of affluent retirees, along with the usual flocks of tourists, that help make it possible for Lawrence - and her counterparts in places such as Park Rapids and Bemidji - to make a living selling lattes.

There are a lot more young folks out there who yearn to do what she did, Lawrence said. She knows, because they try.

``People come here for a little while and try to make a go of it,'' she said, ``but then go back.''

Employers do need people, she said, but not always at wages that many Americans find acceptable - thus an increase in Eastern European immigrants like Lawrence's employee, Laura Ivanova, who arrived two years ago from Bulgaria to make a home in the remote reaches of Minnesota's north country.

Customers started drifting toward the map and saying where they were from, Lawrence said.

``Not just America,'' she said, ``but all over the world: Australia, Thailand, China, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary. We put it up May 10 and after three months it was completely covered. Now the new one is getting full.''

David Peterson is at dapeterson@startribune.com.

Population change, 2000-2002


North Dakota: -1.2%
South Dakota: .8%
Minnesota: 2%
Iowa: .4%
Wisconsin: 1%

- Source: U.S. Census

Overshadowing our neighbors


From 2000 to 2002, Minnesota added more new residents than its neighbors in all major ethnic and racial groups except Hispanics, where it tied with Wisconsin.



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