Wisconsin loses rural residents to urban areas

By Ben Jones, USA TODAY
Posted 3m ago |

MADISON, Wis. — Rural counties in northern Wisconsin bled population in the past decade, continuing a pattern of losses to urban areas.

Twenty of Wisconsin's 72 counties lost population, according to 2010 Census data out Thursday. They include Iron County, which decreased by 14% to 5,916, and Florence County, which decreased by 13% to 4,423.

Overall, the state's population grew 6% to 5,686,986.

In comparison, two Wisconsin counties lost population in the 1990s, according to a state demographer who was surprised by the number of counties with losses.

"Once the recession hit, there seemed to be … people being pulled out of these rural areas and more toward the metro areas," said David Egan-Robertson, a research analyst with the state Demographic Services Center.

Suburban Wisconsin communities near metro areas continued to grow in the past decade. Counties across the state line from Chicago and Minneapolis saw some of the most rapid population growth in the state.

St. Croix County in western Wisconsin, in commuting range of Minneapolis and St. Paul, was the fastest-growing county in the state, up by more than 33% since 2000, to 84,345.

Egan-Robertson said other data, such as housing starts, indicate most of that county's growth happened in the first half of the decade, before the recession began.

"A Realtor could tell you that things pretty much came to a halt once the recession hit," he said.

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Kenosha County, across the border from Chicago, grew 11.3% to 166,426.

Milwaukee remained the state's largest county, growing by 0.8% to 947,735 since 2000. The city of Milwaukee decreased slightly since 2000 to 594,833 — its smallest population since 1940.

Madison, the state's second-largest city, grew 12.1% to 233,209. Green Bay, the third-largest Wisconsin city, grew 1.7% to 104,057.

The state's Hispanic population grew by 74.2% since 2000, an increase of 143,135 people. Hispanics account for 5.9% of the state's population. Blacks remain the largest minority group at 6.3%.

Jones reports for The Post-Crescent in Appleton, Wis.

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