EXCERPT: “Our state’s demographic center published a report that helps clarify the complex relationships among Greater Minnesota counties, cities and towns of all sizes. Remarkably innovative, they studied not just where people live but the relationships among cities and towns — how people live and work across city and county boundaries. They group us as living in urban, large town, small town, and rural communities, based on both population size (the traditional measure) and proximity to other communities . . . I found some of the study’s findings discouraging. Residents of small town and rural Minnesota communities are twice as likely to be 80 years or older, shares that will continue to rise. Rural, small town and large town residents who work full-time are two or more times more likely to live in poverty than urban residents who do so. Entirely rural counties lost population, both from lower birth rates and negative net migration, a trend the authors don’t see abating.” READ: http://bit.ly/2vXvAnD