Minneapolis and St. Paul: We're shrinking!

Photo by stevelyon

As much as we brag about living in the greatest city in country, there are enough people leaving to show a decline in our population. Maybe it's the cold winters, maybe so many of our residents are old and dying off, or maybe this whole report is statistical noise.

The U.S. Census Bureau came out with updated population numbers that showed Minneapolis and St. Paul had declining population numbers. What a bummer. Lucky for Minneapolis, the major Minnesota city is only down an estimated 142 residents since 2000 for a total population of 382,605. St. Paul saw a much larger decline with 7,158 fewer residents. That brings the city's total to 279,950, down 2.5 percent.

Where are people actually moving? The numbers could surprise you, considering they are some of the places we'd least like to live. Rochester, the state's only other city topping 100,000 residents, increased an estimated 12,771 since 2000, a 16-percent increase. They have a estimated total population of 100,413. We'd like to give a high-five to the Mayo Clinic for their likely assistance on that one.

St. Cloud is also booming: Estimated at 66,948, up from 59,107 in 2000.