Human Capacity: Migration and Immigration
New Report:
Migration in Greater KC and its Peer Metros
Successful regions attract and retain talented people. As people seek to improve their quality of life they will live in regions that will provide them the most opportunity. Compared to its peers, Kansas City does a moderate job of keeping and attracting people. The overall population grew over 100,000 between 2000 and 2005, with the bulk of that growth coming from natural growth and around 40,000 coming from net in-migration.
Components of Population Change
2000-2005
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Of special concern is the ability to attract and retain the young adult population. With their more recent schooling and greater propensity for taking risks, many innovations come from the younger generation.
Change in Young Adult Population (25-39)
1990-2000
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In terms of gross population change in the 25-39 year old age group, the region performed near the bottom of its peers in the 1990s, actually losing population.
However, this age group's share of total population dropped by about the same percentage in all the peer metros, indicating this age group is simply a smaller segment of the population nationwide than it was in 1990.
The difference in this group's growth rate across peers is then primarily a function of the differences in their overall population growth rates during the decade.
Percent Migration of Young, Single, College-Educated Residents, 1995-2000
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Migration of the Young, Single, and College Educated: 1995 to 2000
To get at the question of what areas are attracting young, innovative workers, the Census Bureau prepared a special tabulation examining the mobility of young, single, college-educated adults.
Expressed as in-migration rate, the Kansas City region performs much better on this measure. It ranks just behind such leaders as Portland, Denver and Dallas, occupying the middle ground between them and the rest of the peers.
Foreign-Born Growth, 1990-2000
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An important source of talent and energy is immigration. On this measure, the region lags behind its peers. Though its foreign-born population grew tremendously at 120 percent, only St. Louis saw slower growth.
Since 2000 the Kansas City area has added nearly 40,000 net new residents. This figure puts us in the middle of our peers. Over 22,000 of those came to Kansas City from another country.
Net Migration (In-Out) 1994-2005
Kansas City, MO-KS (excluding counties within a 50-mile buffer)
St. Louis, MO-IL (excluding counties within a 50-mile buffer)
Denver, CO (excluding counties within a 50-mile buffer)
Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN (excluding counties within a 50-mile buffer)
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Larger maps available in PDF format (4MB) .
Using tax return data by county from the IRS, we can measure Kansas City’s migration pattern with some of the peer metros. It appears Kansas City generally is a regional draw, with most of its net in-migration between 1994 and 2005 coming from a six-state area. It also saw significant in-migration from southern California, likely in response to rising costs there. Minneapolis-St. Paul has also follows a regional draw pattern. Denver however is more of a national draw with significant net migration coming from all parts of the country. St. Louis is a net out-migration metro losing population mostly to southern states.
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