A new and promising information resource

Pioneer Press Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:34:02 -0700
Facts, trends, direction

Wilder Research, part of the St. Paul-based Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, is well known and regarded for unbiased, unflinching research that helps people understand facts and trends in the Twin Cities. So we're pleased to make note of a major new project, led by Wilder Research, in partnership with the Itasca Project and supported by a consortium of local funders, called "Twin Cities Compass."

From the Compass website:

how we are faring overall

Overall, the Twin Cities region is growing. Significant population trends include:

Suburbanization
Suburban areas of the region have grown faster than the cities during the past few decades; this growth is projected to continue.

More Persons Of Color
Since the 1990s, the number of Persons of Color in the region has increased 250 percent. As a proportion of the population, Persons of Color have increased from about 9 percent to almost 20 percent.

Older population is increasing
Increases in the proportion of persons over age 65, and in the group over age 85, stand out among the most significant changes in our region’s population.

Key trends

Key measures in each of our eight topic areas were selected by 300+ volunteers from academia, private industry, public and non-profit sectors, who assisted us in shaping this project. Below we highlight some of the findings from these measures. Learn more about each of these areas under their topic sections.

Civic engagement → Regional strength, regional potential
According to a Twin Cities Compass survey conducted by Wilder Research in 2007, 6 out of 10 residents feel that the ability of people to work together to improve the community is good or outstanding. The same survey found 87 percent have volunteered during the past 12 months.

Early childhood → A good start that could be better
Birth weight and early screening for potential learning and health concerns are two important measures for determining a child’s long-term health and success. While better than the nation as a whole, our region’s rate of low-weight births seems to be creeping upward. On the other hand, most children are screened before they enter school, and efforts to screen children at a younger age are paying off: about three-quarters of children screened by public schools districts are screened by
age 4.

Economy and workforce → Losing the Midwest magic?
Our economic measures moved up in the 1990s, then declined with the 2001 recession. For example, real per-capita income now falls below the end-of-century level, and while we used to outperform the U.S. as a whole in growth of economic output, we now just stay even with, or lag behind, the U.S.

Education → Not quite making the grade
Overall, only about 7 of 10 of our region’s students graduate on time from high school; rates for Black and Hispanic students are about half of that number. About 1 of three 11th grade students achieves state standards in mathematics.

Health → A region weighing itself down?
The increase in the obesity rate has become a national public health issue. In our region, the rate has more than doubled since 1990, from about 10 percent to just over 22 percent. It is especially troubling to see significant racial disparities in obesity and other health concerns. In addition, Of Color populations are also most likely to lack health coverage.

Housing → Mortgaging people’s futures
Minnesota continues to have one of the highest home ownership rates in the U.S., but the proportion of the region’s households who are cost-burdened, that is pay 30 percent or more of their income for housing, increased during the 2000s from about 24 percent to about 34 percent. The homeownership gap between Whites and Persons Of Color is substantially worse than for the U.S.

Public Safety → Our property is safer, but are we?
Property crime rates are generally lower this decade than they were in the 1990s. However, the violent crime rate, in decline since the mid-1990s, grew 25 percent from 2005 to 2006. Victimization rates–including both reported and unreported crimes—tend to be higher for those living in the central cities as well as those with lower incomes.

Transportation → Are we there yet?
The annual rate of traffic injuries and deaths has continually decreased over the last seven years. Yet, more than 19,000 people were seriously injured in a motor vehicle accident in 2006. We are tracking bridge ratings as one indicator of the health of our infrastructure and, despite the I-35W bridge tragedy in August, the percentage of bridges with problematic ratings has gone down somewhat over the past six years.

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