Last week, the Wall Street Journal posted a very interesting article on the population shifts that have occurred in certain U. S. cities. The article reported findings of decadal growth and declines in metropolitan areas with 500,000 or more people.
Las Vegas grew the fastest, followed by Raleigh, Ft. Myers, Provo, and Austin.
The metro areas with the greatest losses were New Orleans, Youngstown, Detroit, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh.
You will especially want to check out the interactive map “Populous Metropolis,” connected to the article.
I share this post with you today because I believe there is a wealth of great information reported in this article, information to guide our missionary thinking and practice.
Some other matters for your consideration, not reported in the article:
- Provo, Utah is the country’s least Evangelical metro area
- Raleigh, North Carolina attracted a significant number of immigrants in the 1990s, giving it the new label “Pre-Emerging Gateway City”
- Cleveland, Ohio no longer attracts immigrants as it used to, giving it the new label “Former Gateway City”
- Austin, Texas experienced a large number of immigrants in the 1990s, giving it the new label “Pre-Emerging Gateway City”
- Detroit, Michigan does not attract as many immigrants as it did in the past, giving it the new label “Former Gateway City”
How about you? What do you know about these “biggest gainers” and “biggest losers”? Feel free to post your comments that may help others minister in these cities.
I appreciate your bringing this out. It’s interesting that Austin is growing so much. I lived there in the early 2000’s and saw some of the growth and had a chance to go back recently, simply amazing how much opportunity there is.
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