Our research associate Kelly Asche can tell you all about the State of Rural Minnesota in 2019, the Center’s latest report, and our newly updated Atlas of Minnesota. Listen to his recent interview on KAXE/KBXE Bemidji-Grand Rapids-Brainerd-Ely.

EXCERPT: “The Minnesota House Ag committee got an update on the latest Minnesota Rural Grocery Survey. The University of Minnesota’s Kathy Draeger says there are only about 250 local “main street” grocery stores remaining in Greater Minnesota. Draeger says rural Minnesota is losing these ‘main street’ stores at an unprecedented rate–which can have a significant ...

EXCERPT: “Nearly 35 percent of rural counties in the United States are experiencing protracted and significant population loss, according to new research released by the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. Those counties are now home to 6.2 million residents, a third fewer than lived there in 1950. In all, the ...

  Reed Anfinson, editor and owner of the Swift County Monitor-News in Benson and the Grant County Herald in Elbow Lake, continues his conversation this week about the issues our new governor from Greater Minnesota will be working with. Transportation is, of course, big, and so is workforce housing. But the real problem, says Reed, ...

EXCERPT: “Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlett today announced the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has launched a new toolkit to help support the deployment of high-speed broadband e-Connectivity in rural communities. ‘High-speed broadband e-Connectivity is becoming more and more essential to doing business, delivering health care, and, for schoolchildren, doing ...

Welcome to the Center for Rural Policy & Development’s new blog! Our goal with our newest tool of communication is to provide more insight into issues facing Greater Minnesota. Blog posts in the future will focus on a variety of topics, ranging from the importance of newspapers in rural communities to the role of women ...

EXCERPT: “New Gov. Tim Walz won’t release his first budget until Feb. 19 but some elements of his agenda for rural Minnesota are already starting to emerge. Walz is the state’s first governor from greater Minnesota since Rudy Perpich, an Iron Ranger who left office in 1991. The Democratic former congressman and former high school teacher ...

EXCERPT: “Local governments around the state could get a funding boost to the tune of $30.5 million a year if Gov. Tim Walz’s state budget gets a green light from the Minnesota Legislature. The DFL governor said Wednesday, Jan. 30, that he’d push to get the extra funds to help cities and towns pay for essential ...

  Reed Anfinson, owner of the Swift County Monitor and Grant County Herald newspapers and a CRPD board member, joins us this week to talk about the fact that the new governor of Minnesota is from Greater Minnesota, something that hasn’t happened in 30 years. Gov. Walz’s job now, says Reed, will be to balance ...

Each year, the Center for Rural Policy and Development provides a brief update on various economic and demographic data in rural Minnesota. As policy discussions concerning rural Minnesota unfold, it is important to understand the past, present, and potential futures of rural regions. This report provides historical data points, illustrating how rural conditions have changed ...