Tag: demographics

February 13, 2019 By Kelly Asche, Research Associate Each year, the Center for Rural Policy and Development provides a brief report on various economic and demographic conditions in rural Minnesota. The State of Rural Minnesota 2019  provides data points both current and historical, illustrating how rural conditions have changed and where they are at now. ...

  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.

  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, ...

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 ...

  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 ...

Ask business owners in Minnesota what their biggest challenge is today and most will tell you: “finding help.” Economic growth coupled with an aging workforce heading toward retirement and fewer young people to replace them is putting significant pressure on Greater Minnesota’s employers, making hiring significantly more challenging. Over the next several months, the Center for ...

  Diana Anderson, president of the Southwest Initiative Foundation in Hutchinson, joins us this week to talk about a new initiative on their part to build opportunities for youth in the region, particularly for the 11,000 children who live in poverty there. 

  This week CRPD’s research associate Kelly Asche joins us again to talk about the workforce shortage and how it can turn out to be a positive story. Employers are starting to look at what were previously considered hard-to-employ groups, like people with criminal backgrounds and people with disabilities. There is also the work going ...

EXCERPT: “Open enrollment has increased across Greater Minnesota over the last decade, according to research by the Center for Rural Policy and Development. The percentage of students choosing to open enroll in rural Minnesota districts increased from 9 percent in 2006-2007 to 15 percent in 2016-2017. For non-metro districts that are regional centers, open enrollment increased ...