St. Michael and Albertville See Population Dip during Work Day

(Patch Field Editor James Warden wrote this article.)

St. Michael and Albertville experience a population exodus during the workday as residents commute to jobs in communities around the metro, according to recently released Census data.

St. Michael's daytime population drops by about 29 percent, based on estimates from the 2006-2010 American Community Survey. In all, the city’s population falls by 4,461 people—from a resident population of 15,384 to an estimated population of 10,923 during the workday.

Albertville's daytime population drops by about 8.5 percent, based on estimates from ACS estimates—a decrease of 558 people, from a resident population of 6,548 to an estimated population of 5,990 during the workday.

Use the map above to compare how Minnesota cities fared. The map is colored according to each city’s “employment-residence ratio”—which compares the number of workers in a community to the number of workers who live there. 

Ratios greater than 1.0 mean more people work in a community than it has workers living there. A community with a ranking of 1.19, for example, would have 19 percent more workers working there. By contrast, communities with ratios less than 1.0 send more residents to other communities to work than they receive.

The colors correspond to these ratios as described above:

• Red: .23 to .5
• Yellow: .5 to 1
• Blue: 1 to 1.5
• Green: 1.5 to 5

The map includes only communities with either 2,500 workers living there or 2,500 workers who go there to work.