Spirit Lake ranks #41 for Most Dynamic Micropolitan

The Walton Family Foundation recently released the Most Dynamic Micropolitans Index ranking 531 micropolitan areas throughout the United States. Ranking at #41, Spirit Lake was the lone Iowa micropolitan to make it into the top 100.

A micropolitan is defined to be a geographical area consisting of a city with a population of 10,000 to 50,000. The Most Dynamic Micropolitans Index collects metrics on both short- and long-term growth. These metrics include job growth, wage and income gains and the proportion of total jobs at young firms. The sources of the data used include the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The higher-ranked micropolitans showed a few trends that seem to impact growth: strong entrepreneurial culture, areas that contained research universities or four-year colleges, community colleges with adaptive curriculum to meet local employer needs, and quality of place attributes such as arts, cultural, recreational and lifestyle amenities.

Spirit Lake's high-ranking performance areas included #15 for 2015-2016 Job Growth, #15 for 2016 Per-Capita Personal Income, and #17 for 2012-2016 Job Growth.

Click here to read more about the index and economic development trends in these micropolitan areas and to see the full list.