Bismarck Public Schools Face Growing Pains --- December 18, 2016

Link here. Data points:

• the three Bismarck middle schools are spilling over with students
• by 2021 - 2022: Bismarck public schools will gain almost 2,000 students; 740 at the middle schools alone
• each middle school has reached or will soon reach capacity

Comments:

• middle school-aged students: 10 - 13 years of age
• this is 2016: what happened 10 - 13 years ago in North Dakota
• 2003 to 2006: that's interesting: that's before the Bakken boom

From an NDSU study, "Trends in the North Dakota Economy, dated, May, 2006:

Summary:

As North Dakota has shifted from its traditional dependence on natural resource-based activities to a more diversified economy, changes in employment, population, income, and retail sales have occurred.

This report summarizes changes in these and other economic indicators at the county and community level from 1980 to 2004.

Employment increased 12 percent from 1990 to 2004, with 19 of the state’s 53 counties registering job growth.

The largest percentage (and absolute) gains were in Cass (Fargo) and Burleigh (Bismarck) counties. Population statewide decreased by less than 1 percent from 1990 to 2004, as substantial growth in the Fargo and Bismarck-Mandan metropolitan areas was offset by population decreases in most of the state’s rural counties.

Per capita income (adjusted for inflation) increased 32 percent statewide from 1990 to 2004. The 2004 value ($29,247) was about 89 percent of U.S. per capita income, compared to 79 percent in 1990.

Retail sales also increased substantially from 1990 to 2004, and the state’s four wholesale-retail trade centers accounted for a growing share of sales. Pull factors, which measure a community’s retail sales compared to residents’ purchasing power, were stable or increasing for the wholesale-retail centers and declining for smaller trade centers, on average.

From USA Today five years ago "North Dakota economy booms, population soars, March 17, 2011, which was based on data as of 2010. The Bakken was booming but it was in the early stages, and had  not yet reached its stride. 

The two takeaways for me:

• the North Dakota economy is more diverse than folks might think
• population boom in Bismarck prior to Bakken (and maybe during the Bakken) may have been significantly impacted by rural folks moving to the city; in the 2006 study only two regions showed an increase in population (Fargo and Bismarck); all other regions in North Dakota declined in population