New Report Shows Population Growth in Greater Minnesota

For the first in many years, the population in greater Minnesota has grown.  The Center for Rural Policy and Development’s annual State of Rural Minnesota Report shows in 2020 and 2021 the decades-long trend of population loss in rural counties was reversed.  President and CEO Julie Tesch says the gains were modest and were mainly in three key areas including the lakes regions:

“So Brainerd Lakes anywhere in like Northern Minnesota, and then also in kind of our regional centers so like a Moorhead, Duluth, and then Mankato, and then our third place we found population increasing is where we have more processing plants. So you’ll think of Worthington like Nobles County or Austin in Mower County.”

The urban core of Minneapolis and St. Paul lost about 20,000 people during the same period.  Overall the state is still projected to decline in total population over the next 20 to 30 years.