Core cities find that populations are on the rise

by David Peterson

Pointing to trends in building permits, local officials have insisted for some time that these changes have been happening. But this is the first time the nation's top arbiter of population trends has agreed.

Throughout the decade, the Census Bureau has recorded population declines in Minneapolis, St. Paul and older suburbs such as Edina, Bloomington, St. Louis Park and Hopkins. But now they and others are on the rise.

It’s a change being seen in a number of similar metro areas, said demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution in Washington.