Minorities accounted for 80 percent of Minnesota's population growth during the last decade, and nearly 1 in every 7 residents is a person of color.
This is good news. Many states in the central part of the country are losing population. Minnesota continues to attract new residents.
The bad news: the Twin Cities ranks near the bottom, 49th, of the best large metro areas for minority entrepreneurs.
The ranking appears in Forbes magazine. The research was conducted by urbanist Joel Kotkin and demographer Wendell Cox. Kotkin's take on the results can be found here.
Why this is bad news:Economic growth - new business formation, new jobs - solves a lot of our budget woes, and minorities, particularly immigrant minorities, are more likely to start small firms than other Americans. Kotkin notes a Kauffman Foundation study that says immigrants accounted for 30 percent of new entrepreneurs in 2010.
There was no specific indication of what factors dragged down our ranking. Generally, the study refers to the relatively poor performance of larger cities, such as San Francisco, Chicago and Boston, citing high rents and other operating costs.
I've got a note into Kotkin to see if any other specific factors were cited in the course of his research, but I'll throw the question out to readers, too:
Do you agree that this is a tough place for minority entrepreneurs? If you do, what are some of the factors that make it so?
