Twin Cities population reaches nearly 2.9 million
New Twin Cities population numbers show the pace of people moving to the region has slowed.
Metropolitan Council demographer Todd Graham says the seven-county metropolitan area grew by about 9 percent, or 240,000 people, between 2000 and 2009.
Graham says most of the increase is from what he calls natural growth, the children of people already here who decide to stay here. Graham says the increase puts the Twin Cities fifth among similar metropolitan areas in the northeastern and Midwestern U.S.
"In the Midwest, the fastest growth major metro areas were Indianapolis, Columbus and Kansas City," said Graham. "These are all metro areas that have at least a million people, and have been growing faster than 1 percent per year."
The population of the seven-county Twin Cities metro area is about 2.88 million. Population numbers for the entire state of Minnesota will be released later this week.
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