The Register notes this morning about the decling population in the city of Des Moines.
Let’s remember that this is part of a trend in the U.S. of people moving out of cities to surrounding areas (especially in the midwest and western U.S. where there is ample land around cities for development). This puts Des Moines in the same boat as other cities that are losing population. Cities like Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis, St. Louis and Kansas City – all of which lost people during the period from 2000 to 2004.
While it’s important to note that people are leaving Des Moines, it’s just as important to note that the metro area population increased by 15.6% (about 65,000 peole) during the 1990s. The Des Moines area is not turning into Pittsburgh or Detroit, where the total metro area populations are declining or flat. People are not moving from Des Moines to Los Angeles – they are just moving to the suburbs, like everywhere else in the U.S.
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WAsn’t that trend already firmly in place back as far as 1994? It seems to me when I was there that there was a huge westaward expansion and a condo buildup west of Valley Junction. How is this surprising to
anyone, let alone the Register?
Plus, Des Moines has no liveable downtown area and no public transport to speak of, so what would be the draw in living in the City of Des Moines itself?
Good point about the past numbers. Your comment prompted me to look at the 1990s.
I found two things. 1) The census had similar downward trending estimates for Des Moines from 1994 to 1999 with population going from 195,000 to 190,000 in 1999. 2) The estimate methodology is not without problems. If census estimated Des Moines at 190,000 in 1999, but the actual numbers for April, 2000 were 198,000 – that would give Des Moines a nice healthy growth rate of 4.2% in one year. Thus the inter-census estimates seem to be low.
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