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Midwest metropolitan and micropolitan data, how urban are people of the Great Plains, fairly low population concentration, Michigan’s metropolitan counties, census bureau statistics
The data is not very surprising to me. St. Louis, Kansas City, Chicago, and Minneapolis all seem to devour the populations of the respective states they are in. Not only that, but St. Louis draws in many residents from Illinois, and Chicago has pull over Wisconsin and Indiana, and Detroit over Northwest Ohio and Windsor, Canada, and Cincinnati on Indiana and Northern Kentucky. Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio have the benefits of many smaller cities outside of their major ones. Ohio has Toledo and Dayton..Missouri has Columbia, Springfield, and Joplin...Wisconsin has Madison, Green Bay...most of the Midwest states have a plentiful supply of metropolitan areas as well as one or two large cities...or in the case of Ohio, three.
How Urban Are the People of the Great Plains and Midwest? How concentrated or "centralized" is the population?
Does the data surprise you in any way? Any additional comments are welcome.
No, it doesn't surprise me. I have driven across and/or visited most of these states. I also lived in Illinois. It is obvious there is a lot of land dedicated to agriculture, and a few large cities. It may surprised some people who don't live in the midwest.
The data is not very surprising to me. St. Louis, Kansas City, Chicago, and Minneapolis all seem to devour the populations of the respective states they are in. Not only that, but St. Louis draws in many residents from Illinois, and Chicago has pull over Wisconsin and Indiana, and Detroit over Northwest Ohio and Windsor, Canada, and Cincinnati on Indiana and Northern Kentucky. Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio have the benefits of many smaller cities outside of their major ones. Ohio has Toledo and Dayton..Missouri has Columbia, Springfield, and Joplin...Wisconsin has Madison, Green Bay...most of the Midwest states have a plentiful supply of metropolitan areas as well as one or two large cities...or in the case of Ohio, three.
And if you look at a map those cities literally box Iowa on all sides. Almost everyone I know in Iowa who went to college packed up right after graduation and either went to Kansas City, Minneapolis or Chicago. I think that's what took Des Moines so long to finally get a grip and become competitive for the younger crowd. It's hard to get people who want well paying jobs and a good social scene when you've got those major cities taunting you on all sides.
It's almost creepy how many people in Chicago are from Iowa. The U of Iowa is 40% out-of-staters, almost all Chicagoland, and then on top of that the Iowans who grew up there and go to state in school all head for the border once they're finished. I can't even count how many University of Iowa bars are in Chicago. Merkles, Barlycorn, Big City Tap, Sedgwicks, Good Bar, Gaslight, Four Shadows. The University even opened an office in Chicago for admissions/information/support. It's not even in the same state as the public University!! Today I saw 6 Iowa banners hanging off people's decks on my train ride in, and it was only 12 minutes.
Last year Iowa played Northern Illinois (only 50 miles away from Chicago!) at Soldier Field. It was almost sick. There were quite literally tens of thousands of Iowans pouring into the city for the weekend, like half the state. My parents came from Iowa City, as did ALL their friends, and they said the interstate from Iowa to Chicago was jam packed with thousands of cars with little Hawkeye flags hanging off. Mostly parents of kids (like me) who live in Chicago, and other fans who were excited about being in the city and watching their team. They took over Goose Island Brewery, booked and filled the Grand Ballroom at Navy Pier, had an Iowa day at the Cubs game, Herkey pretty much did a parade down Michigan Avenue, huge tailgate parties. It was nuts, but pretty cool at the same time. We were downtown on the day of the game and the streets were packed with black and gold. Lots of people stopped us on the streets going WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?!?
Look at the stands, and this is just the people who actually went to the game:
Quite a bit of yellow for the other teams "home opener"
My parents love Iowa, but for my dad working for the university he's kinda torn. He mentioned after that game how it really drives in the point that Iowa has a hell of a time keeping quality kids in the state. Top ranked public school system, highly ranked colleges, low crime, low stress, low poverty, beautiful summers, hard working people, tons of energy put into bringing up quality and dedicated kids. Then when they're 22 and it's all paid off for them - everyone leaves. It was AWESOME growing up in Iowa, I would have never wanted to grow up anywhere else, but when you finally come out of your education with so many opportunities they're all with high paying firms and jobs that don't want to bother "being stuck in Iowa", and they're all located in some high profile city.
Anyway, that was a loooong babble, but it's a very valid point a lot of states are dealing with.
Last edited by Chicago60614; 09-11-2008 at 08:59 AM..
And if you look at a map those cities literally box Iowa on all sides. Almost everyone I know in Iowa who went to college packed up right after graduation and either went to Kansas City, Minneapolis or Chicago. I think that's what took Des Moines so long to finally get a grip and become competitive for the younger crowd. It's hard to get people who want well paying jobs and a good social scene when you've got those major cities taunting you on all sides.
It's almost creepy how many people in Chicago are from Iowa. The U of Iowa is 40% out-of-staters, almost all Chicagoland, and then on top of that the Iowans who grew up there and go to state in school all head for the border once they're finished. I can't even count how many University of Iowa bars are in Chicago. Merkles, Barlycorn, Big City Tap, Sedgwicks, Good Bar, Gaslight, Four Shadows. The University even opened an office in Chicago for admissions/information/support. It's not even in the same state as the public University!! Today I saw 6 Iowa banners hanging off people's decks on my train ride in, and it was only 12 minutes.
Last year Iowa played Northern Illinois (only 50 miles away from Chicago!) at Soldier Field. It was almost sick. There were quite literally tens of thousands of Iowans pouring into the city for the weekend, like half the state. My parents came from Iowa City, as did ALL their friends, and they said the interstate from Iowa to Chicago was jam packed with thousands of cars with little Hawkeye flags hanging off. Mostly parents of kids (like me) who live in Chicago, and other fans who were excited about being in the city and watching their team. They took over Goose Island Brewery, booked and filled the Grand Ballroom at Navy Pier, had an Iowa day at the Cubs game, Herkey pretty much did a parade down Michigan Avenue, huge tailgate parties. It was nuts, but pretty cool at the same time. We were downtown on the day of the game and the streets were packed with black and gold. Lots of people stopped us on the streets going WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?!?
Look at the stands, and this is just the people who actually went to the game:
Quite a bit of yellow for the other teams "home opener"
My parents love Iowa, but for my dad working for the university he's kinda torn. He mentioned after that game how it really drives in the point that Iowa has a hell of a time keeping quality kids in the state. Top ranked public school system, highly ranked colleges, low crime, low stress, low poverty, beautiful summers, hard working people, tons of energy put into bringing up quality and dedicated kids. Then when they're 22 and it's all paid off for them - everyone leaves. It was AWESOME growing up in Iowa, I would have never wanted to grow up anywhere else, but when you finally come out of your education with so many opportunities they're all with high paying firms and jobs that don't want to bother "being stuck in Iowa", and they're all located in some high profile city.Anyway, that was a loooong babble, but it's a very valid point a lot of states are dealing with.
I agree. Iowa basically is different from the other states in the Midwest in the fact that it doesn't have a metro area that is quite large. Iowa is a collection of small cities basically. And I can vouch for St. Louis being a major destination for people from Iowa...I see Iowa license plates around SLU all the time and my doctor is even from Southern Iowa. So yea....most Iowans generally migrate to the Midwestern states that border them after they are old enough (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Missouri)
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