At 16.7% , Des Moines is the Midwest's major metro growth leader

[atler8]

Originally Posted by fezzador

First link is broken.


Does that 101K account for the addition of Jasper County? Granted that should have been a long time coming but I believe that was just made official earlier this decade.



Wikipedia (I know, not the greatest source out there, but generally works in a pinch) shows a nearly 23% growth for the 2010s so my guess is that the links have included Jasper in the metro as if it were always a part of it, while Wikipedia's growth figures treat Jasper as a newly-added county.


Pretty cool to officially hit 700K. It sounds "bigger" than 500 or even 600K, like it's closing in on that magical 1M mark (which it should hit sometime between 2040 and 2045, using a fairly conservative 1.5% annual growth rate).

Some good observations there, fezzador and ones that seem on target including the possibility of how Wikipedia has misinterpreted the data regarding Jasper County as a part of the metro area. That note by you is a good catch. And by the way, thanks for noting the broken link (sorry about that) site which contained almost virtual duplication of the working link.

Like you, I recognize the limits of Wikipedia while also finding it to be generally helpful when a very deep drill down of an issue is not needed.

I have a long memory and can easily recall when the Quad Cities metro was larger than the Des Moines metro. Since that distant time frame, the Quad Cities has undergone modest growth which was quickly followed by a decade of significant population loss which has since then been followed by a very slow uptick in population in each subsequent decade.
By comparison, metro Des Moines slowed significantly in it's growth during the 1960's and the 1970's but surprisingly came out of the disastrous decade of the 1980's Farm Crisis with a higher than should have been expected growth; a growth sparked by a significant upturn in the financial services aspect of the metro area economy.
It's not stretching things at all to note that metro Des Moines may very soon double the Quad Cities metro population.

During that disastrous decade of the 1980's in Iowa, Des Moines and the Iowa City metro were the only 2 areas that saw significant growth.
In the 3 decades that have followed that reawakening for Des Moines that began in the 1980's, the metro area has sharply picked up the growth pace and is now a Midwestern growth leader among the "major" metros of that region.
You are correct about the newly-revealed relative size of the Des Moines area which has now surpassed the 700,000 figure and I've got to add my own view that looking back some 30 to 40 years ago, if asked then about my expectations for growth there, I would never have expected to see that 700,000 mark surpassed in my lifetime. It's simply a fact that back then metro Des Moines was stagnant and growing largely via it's births over deaths surplus.

The link below is for an article from 2019 that looks at 3 of the larger Midwestern metro areas that stand out in terms of economic vibrancy and in population growth. Certainly there are other nicely growing major metros in the region but it's welcome news to see that Des Moines is recognized for it's own level of growth and is is one of the 3 featured cities.


https://siteselection.com/issues/201...utm_content=RA

[fezzador]

Originally Posted by atler8

Actually no, it's not. Your North Dakota is the ONLY Midwest state that is growing rapidly and stands well alone as the Midwestern growth leader.
North Dakota is found in 4th place among the national list of leading states in terms of it's percentage growth rate which, at 15.8 % for the just-ended decade, is the ONLY Midwestern state that is ranked among the 14 top growth states in percentage terms.
In comparison to it's southern neighbor, North Dakota's percentage rate of growth was significantly faster than the 8.9% recorded by South Dakota, which while 1.5% above the national growth rate of 7.4%, ranked as the 16th fastest grower.

Some context is needed which takes into account that the last census count national growth rate of 7.4% was the SLOWEST such decade growth percentage since the 1930's when the U.S. was in the grips of the Great Depression.
As such, South Dakota's rate which is 1.5% faster than the slow-growth national average is by no means a "rapidly growing" state. But rather the data shows instead that South Dakota is a slightly to modestly better than average performer in growth.

Restating the obvious as found via the data, North Dakota is the only state in the Midwest that grew rapidly in the just-concluded decade.

https://www.aarp.org/politics-societ...a-results.html

https://apnews.com/article/south-dak...462983d511a98c

Much of ND's growth came from 2010-2015, then started to level off significantly once the oil boom waned.


To be honest though, I'm not sure if Iowa experiencing that sort of growth would be a good thing overall. Iowa remains one of the least-expensive states to live in, but a sudden influx of high-paying jobs (especially ones that don't require much - if any - higher education) would likely cause housing shortages, which would then raise housing and rental prices, and tends to invite the "sleaze" element which Iowa thankfully has little of.



And it's hard for any state - let alone Iowa - to create tens of thousands of white-collar jobs. It's not educated professionals that drive the bulk of most states' growth, it's immigrant labor and low-skilled domestic workforce.

[Omahahonors]

Nebraska is similar to both Iowa and South Dakota.

7.4% growth just a handful of people above the actual national average. We are just a couple years away from a 2,000,000 population.

Omaha, the city grew by 77,000 (a few years from 500k) and the metro grew by 104,000, a few years from 1m. Which more than all of the growth (in counts) was on the Nebraska side, which i dont understand at all.

Lincoln grew by 32,000 (a few years from 300k) and the metro by 38,000.

Just three counties grew by a fraction more than the entire state - Douglas, Lancaster and Sarpy.

The only counties outside of those two metropolitan areas to see growth at or above the national level was Hall (Grand Island) and Buffalo (Kearney).

The rural areas were once again decimated by decline. Another 2% drop.

We seem to have a lot in common.

That said, I am looking forward to the day when Omaha and Des Moines metro areas pass 1,000,000 as they are so dang close in proximity. That will create some synergy