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.