Minnesota may be losing residents to nearby states, but communities outside the metro area are gaining people from migration. Researchers are urging those cities and towns to work together to keep people migrating in.
A new report from the St. Peter-based Center for Rural Policy and Development highlights how migration has become the No. 1 driver of population growth in Minnesota for the past few years, even as the Twin Cities metro area and the state as a whole are losing residents.
“We don’t draw in more people than we have people leaving,” said Kelly Asche, a researcher for the center. “But ... if we only look at it from a state perspective, we’re overlooking a lot of nuance that might be important.”
For decades, births largely determined population growth, while people appeared to leave the largely rural areas for the Twin Cities and other urban destinations.
Those trends have changed since the 2010s, as growth centers such as Duluth, Rochester, St. Cloud, Mankato and any community with a strong manufacturing hub attracted younger families and families of color for jobs.
Yet the baby boomer generation will start to turn 80 next year, prompting warnings from state demographers about an expected rise in the number of deaths in Minnesota’s future.
Births won’t offset those losses because Minnesota’s birth rate continues to decline. Though Minnesota’s population still grows annually, it’s largely through new [international](https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-welcomed-some-190000-new-residents-last-year-who-are-they/601219862) arrivals.
Mostly rural counties continue to lose residents, but larger metropolitan areas like Hennepin and Ramsey counties are expected to lose population too. It’s the counties with a mix of urban, suburban and rural interests that are poised to grow over the next few decades, according to state demographic projections.