Abstract

Today's Minnesota settlement pattern and economy were almost completely transformed during the past three decades. "Urbanization of the countryside" is under way in functional terms, and the settlement system is catching up with the economic and social transformation that has been proceeding since World War II. Like the greater Twin Cities area, which spreads over more than 24 counties in Minnesota and Wisconsin, Minnesota's regional centers have been doing the same, whether or not their populations are increasing. Towns, villages and hamlets within highway commuting ranges of regional job centers are becoming bedroom suburbs, and incomes brought home from those jobs brings new vitality to Main Street. Meanwhile, in unincorporated townships surrounding the regional centers and around the state's lakes, new houses are going up for retirees, weekenders, and commuters – especially along major and minor highways and country roads that provide access to nearby malls. The report describes these trends playing out around 24 regional centers in rural Minnesota.

Note: Due to the large number of maps and charts in this report, the document has been split into sections to reduce download times.

View or download this report (PDF document; 205 pages; see below) | Request printed copy

• Report Cover, Title Page, Preface, Executive Summary, Table of Contents (116 KB)
• Chapters 1–4 (532 KB)
  Chapter 1: Minnesota's Regional Centers and Trunk Highways
  Chapter 2: Suburbanization of the Countryside: Population Change in Commuter Fields near Regional Centers
  Chapter 3: Population Change in Space and Time, 1970–2000
  Chapter 4: Trunk Highways and Changes in Traffic Volumes in the 1980s and 1990s
• Chapter 5: Northern Areas of Slow Growth or Decline in the 1990s (3 MB)
• Chapter 6: Northern Areas of Moderate to Fast Growth in the 1990s (4.6 MB)
• Chapter 7: Southern Areas of Slow Growth or Decline in the 1990s (3.6 MB)
• Chapter 8: Southern Areas of Moderate to Fast Growth in the 1990s (3.7 MB)
• Chapter 9–End (133 KB)
  Chapter 9: Population Dispersal and Minnesota's Regional Centers: Suburbanization of the Minnesota Countryside
  Annotated Bibliography
  Appendices