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I'm impressed with Minneapolis and Denver. They aren't small-ish metros with a huge undergrad populations (i.e. Austin, Raleigh, Columbus) or huge, powerhouse employment centers (i.e. NYC, Chicago, DC, Boston, SF), so it's pretty cool that they manage to keep and attract so many young graduates. As a percentage of the population, I'm a bit surprised Seattle wasn't up there with them.
I'm also a little surprised with how weak Houston is in comparison to Dallas and Atlanta (both of whom also don't do well in this study considering their populations). I'm also surprised with how weak LA is, especially since this is based on MSA so it doesn't have the Riverside MSA to bring it's percentages down.
Milwaukee's numbers are super impressive and a bit surprising. It's the only slow growing MSA that saw a huge percentage increase it's young college graduate population.
I would guess that Minneapolis and Denver do so well because they are affordable regional hubs that are already doing really really well. Denver especially is also extremely isolated. Denver would be the logical choice for college grads from all over Colorado, most of Wyoming, and parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas. Minneapolis would similarly be the logical choice for all of Minnesota, most of Wisconsin, northern Iowa, and the eastern Dakotas.
I would guess that Minneapolis and Denver do so well because they are affordable regional hubs that are already doing really really well. Denver especially is also extremely isolated... Minneapolis would similarly be the logical choice for all of Minnesota, most of Wisconsin, northern Iowa, and the eastern Dakotas.
Minneapolis is also a logical choice due to the fact that there are several large, corporations headquartered there or have a significant presence.
Fortune 1,000 Companies headquartered in the Minneapolis area (2013):
UnitedHealth Group
Target
Best Buy
CHS
Supervalu
3M
U.S. Bancorp
General Mills
Medtronic
Land O'Lakes
Ecolab
C.H. Robinson Worldwide
Mosaic
Ameriprise Financial
Xcel Energy
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans
St. Jude Medical
Nash-Finch
Valspar
Patterson
Securian Financial Group
Polaris Industries
Fastenal
Donaldson
Regis
H.B. Fuller
Toro
Michael Foods Group
Forbes Private Companies headquartered in the Minneapolis area (2013):
Cargill - largest private company in the US
Carlson
Holiday Companies
MA Mortenson
Andersen
Companies with a Significant Presence:
Wells Fargo
Thomson Reuters
Travelers Co.
Honeywell
Delta Airlines
Century Link
Boston Scientific
CIGNA
Lockheed Martin
Seagate Technology
Goodrich Corp.
ATK
Lawson Software
ADC
MoneyGram International
Pentair Inc.
Allianz Life
Graco
Minneapolis is also a logical choice due to the fact that there are several large, corporations headquartered there or have a significant presence.
Fortune 1,000 Companies headquartered in the Minneapolis area (2013):
UnitedHealth Group
Target
Best Buy
CHS
Supervalu
3M
U.S. Bancorp
General Mills
Medtronic
Land O'Lakes
Ecolab
C.H. Robinson Worldwide
Mosaic
Ameriprise Financial
Xcel Energy
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans
St. Jude Medical
Nash-Finch
Valspar
Patterson
Securian Financial Group
Polaris Industries
Fastenal
Donaldson
Regis
H.B. Fuller
Toro
Michael Foods Group
Forbes Private Companies headquartered in the Minneapolis area (2013):
Cargill - largest private company in the US
Carlson
Holiday Companies
MA Mortenson
Andersen
Companies with a Significant Presence:
Wells Fargo
Thomson Reuters
Travelers Co.
Honeywell
Delta Airlines
Century Link
Boston Scientific
CIGNA
Lockheed Martin
Seagate Technology
Goodrich Corp.
ATK
Lawson Software
ADC
MoneyGram International
Pentair Inc.
Allianz Life
Graco
Good point. I guess it's easy to forget that Minneapolis has a very large corporate presence that's comparable to many larger metros.
I live in a part of Minneapolis that draws a lot of young transplants. I've been seeing a lot of Ohio and Michigan license plates lately, but also from all over. I was actually looking at the out of state plates on my block earlier today - I saw Arizona, Virginia, Illinois, Connecticut, Iowa, Washington, Montana and Missouri twice. That is all on one block (Minneapolis has really long north south blocks).
Last edited by Drewcifer; 10-03-2013 at 05:34 PM..
We were drawn to MSP (from the south) because of the high salary, quality of life, and lower cost of living vs say Seattle, DC, or the Bay Area (which by the way are all fine cities and I have enjoyed my time in the ones I've been to). What I make here is just as high as I would make in Seattle, or DC. San Fran the pay is higher but the job openings were tighter.
Last edited by sandlapper; 10-03-2013 at 05:32 PM..
Good point. I guess it's easy to forget that Minneapolis has a very large corporate presence that's comparable to many larger metros.
Yes a very impressive corporate presence. So whats the deal then?
Why is Minneapolis such a magnet for corporate operations? Business taxes? What is the reasoning.
If its such a great place for corporations why is the metro population relatively small at 3.5 M? Why hasn't Minneapolis made that leap from a mid tier metro?
I'm not from here originally but if I had to shoot from the hip I'd say a combination of a highly educated workforce, and cold winter weather is what makes the area the strong corporate entity, and keeps the population regulated. Maybe a native can speak on it more. To be fair 3.5 million people isn't a small metro in comparison to a significant majority of the country. The Twin Cities is the 16th largest, and punches quite a bit above its weight class in most metrics.
Last edited by sandlapper; 10-03-2013 at 11:37 PM..
I would guess that Minneapolis and Denver do so well because they are affordable regional hubs that are already doing really really well. Denver especially is also extremely isolated. Denver would be the logical choice for college grads from all over Colorado, most of Wyoming, and parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas. Minneapolis would similarly be the logical choice for all of Minnesota, most of Wisconsin, northern Iowa, and the eastern Dakotas.
Yeah, Iowa is an interesting split. Very high education standards and a majority of people go to college - but other than Des Moines or Iowa City there's really nowhere in the state for them to go. Most will migrate and a majority go to Chicago, with Minneapolis being the close runner up.
Just looking around Chicago you see hundreds of license plates and about a dozen bars on the north side that bill themselves as "Iowa" bars during football Saturdays. I see U of Iowa flags flying from buildings all the time when I'm on the L and there are Iowa flags outside bars up Clark Street by Wrigley. A few years ago when Iowa played at Soldier Field they even had an "Iowa" day at Wrigley and the Iowa mascot was driving in an open top car up and down Michigan Ave. I remember that morning walking down Michigan Ave with hoards of tourists going "what the hell is going on with all the black and gold??".
Of course 45% of Iowa's enrollement direclty comes from the Chicagoland suburbs, so it's not like they're all Iowans, thousands of alumni who grew up in the area and came back home after. I remember my first day at Iowa thinking I'd be a top dog cause I came from Iowa City as opposed to a small town somewhere....and then over half the people in my class were from Chicago and I was suddenly the cute "local" at the school.
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