About Metro Trend Watch

This research project looks at five critical issues in which today’s trends will influence the well-being of the Twin Cities metro area for years to come:

• A good start in life
• Success in school
• Affordable housing
• Economic opportunities
• Safety from crime

Clearly these are not the only issues that matter in our region, but they give a good indication of the way things are going. If we are making progress in these five areas, it’s certain that many other trends are going in a good direction. Likewise, losing ground on any of these trends indicates that other problems are also on the rise.

These five issues offer genuine opportunities for action. These are issues in which local efforts can make a real difference. The purpose is not just to see what is happening, but to choose how to get involved.

These are also issues with a wide influence on many other aspects of well-being. For example, progress on affordable housing will reduce homelessness, relieve financial stress for older adults, improve welfare recipients’ ability to become self-reliant, and provide greater stability for schoolchildren.

Why we watch the gaps and disparities

This region’s future will be shaped not just by the majority or the average, but by what happens in every home, school, workplace, and neighborhood. Wide gaps in well-being – whether those gaps separate people by income, location, or race and ethnicity – are harmful in the long run, even if things are getting better on average. Research from fields as varied as economic development and public health suggests that when any groups are left out of the overall progress of a region, that progress brings fewer benefits than if everyone shares in it.

Thus when available information allows it, Metro Trend Watch peels away the layers of the overall trend to look for groups that are faring quite differently from the average. This does have the risk of distracting from the overall trend or tempting us to view certain issues as “somebody else’s problem.” However, until the Twin Cities region overcomes some very big divisions based on people’s race and income and where they live, we need to continue to bring the disparities to light.

Where we get our information

Most of the statistics in Metro Trend Watch come from public sources, primarily government agencies. These data sets do not always include the details we would custom-order for a study like this one. Some information is not updated often enough to show trends, or not consistently enough to allow for sound conclusions. Yet with all its limitations, the available information provides a remarkably detailed picture of the way things are going for people in the metro area. We supplement the available data with a survey conducted specifically for Metro Trend Watch.

Statistics and real life

As the saying goes, many things that count cannot be counted. Yet many essential things can be quantified. Statistics, like personal stories, tell one important aspect of the truth about what is happening in a community.

Each reader brings a slightly different set of questions to this report. We aim for a balance of simply showing the data along with offering some interpretation to help make sense of it. We count on you to test the findings and conclusions offered here, and to draw your own conclusions about how you can lend your energies to the issues that need most attention right now.

In that spirit, we offer Metro Trend Watch as a contribution to the efforts of many others to understand and improve the well-being and strengths of the Twin Cities metro area.