Reality Check: Minnesota's Evolving Rural Profile
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Minnesota is getting older and more ethnically diverse, especially in rural parts of the state, according to the findings of a new report that finds big changes ahead for rural Minnesota.
Since 1960, it's been an unstoppable population shift, and a new study from the Center for Rural Policy and Development shows a 50-year migration from rural Minnesota to the urban corridor stretching from St. Cloud through the Twin Cities and Rochester.
"You're seeing fewer and fewer farmers," the Center's Brad Finstad said. "Farms are getting farther and farther apart."
The center found troubling numbers in 12 counties: 50 percent of the population is 65 and older. But there are hopeful signs as well. Seven rural counties show population gains from minority groups -- Clearwater, Fillmore, Lyon, Mahnomen, Mower, Nobles, and St. Louis.
The vast majority of Minnesota remains white, but the Center found immigrants of color more than doubled since 1990 -- from 6.3 percent to 14.5 percent.
Rural Minnesota is re-populating with a number of groups including Latinos, Laotians, Somalis, Sudanese and Hmong. There are 114 different spoken languages, many of them in the southern counties.
The biggest population drain is projected to be in the Northeast and Southwest. The biggest gain should be posted from the Southeast. The fastest growing county in Minnesota since 1960 is actually Sherburne County; its population grew 601 percent.
And job growth will be in food processing, health care and manufacturing.
"Where those industries converge gives us great opportunity to compete globally, not just with our neighboring states, not just with the town next to us, but with China and you name it," Finstad said. "We need to keep an eye on that next phase, that next Minnesota miracle."
