Sherburne’s place in the Patchwork Nation

The new book by journalist Dante Chinni and political scientist James Gimpel, "Our Patchwork Nation", catalogs all 3,141 counties in the U.S. into 12 categories in order to make the diverse community types throughout the country more understandable. The information they collected can be used to compare Sherburne County with other counties in the state and nation.

It's no surprise that Sherburne County is classified as a Boom Town, or fast growing community with a rapidly diversifying population. A graph of Sherburne's population growth easily illustrates why the county finds itself in this category.

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In 2000, the county had 65,275 people. By 2008, that number had increased to 87,660. This type of growth has been mirrored in Baldwin.

The data available on their website, which is a partnership with other organizations, also helps compare Sherburne with other exurbs.

Looking at the map of Minnesota counties, an interesting pattern emerges from the Twin Cities center, where Ramsey County is categorized as an industrial metropolis. The first-ring suburbs surrounding the county (Dakota, Washington, Hennepin, Wright, Anoka and Isanti) are categorized as Monied 'Burbs -- highly educated communities with income levels of $15,000 above the national average for counties. Then outer-ring suburbs and exurbs are categorized as either Emptying Nests (counties such as McLeod, Meeker, Mille Lacs, Kanabec, Goodhue and Le Sueur where aging populations or baby boomers find themselves) or Boom Towns (counties such as Sherburne, Benton, Stearns, Chisago, Rice, Scott and Carver).

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Looking at the map, a county's development as a boom town appears to be linked to its distance from the industrial metropolis. Areas that offered commuting distance to major employment centers boomed, while some surrounding areas, such as the Emptying Nests, began to lose population.

The online version of the Patchwork Nation data allows for analysis of other areas besides basic population data or categorization. It allows for mapping of foreclosures, education levels, religion, presidential election data, health, employment data and more. Some of the data can also be viewed by voting districts, which the authors have also cataloged into 9 categories.

Mapping the state's foreclosures highlights the fact that foreclosure rates have concentrated near the Twin Cities, radiating out into the Monied Burbs and boom towns, then lessening as you continue outward.

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According to foreclosure rates from August 2010, Sherburne, Anoka, Wright, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott and Dakota had the highest foreclosure rating of 5, while Mille Lacs, Chisago, Washington, Goodhue, Rice and Carver were rated as 4s. Ratings dissipate lower the further you get from the Twin Cities, with the exception of a few out-state areas that also faced 4-rate foreclosures.

The mapped data also sheds light on why it's difficult to compare Minnesota exurbs to those in the west, such as when this blog looked at Surprise, Arizona. Arizona's system of counties is demographically entirely different from Minnesota's, whereas places such as Ohio or Indiana have similar demographic layouts with industrial metropolises acting as epicenters for concentric rings of different community types.

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