5,000 strong: Small Minnesota cities hit or miss a crucial census benchmark

Census Man always knew he could count on Circle Pines.

For one last time last week, City Council Member Dean Goldberg donned his cape, his mask and his not-so-secret identity and headed for the city limits.

At the edge of town, he pulled out some tape and a scrap of cardboard and updated the population of Circle Pines: 5,025 strong.

A decade ago, hundreds in this suburban Anoka County community didn't bother to turn in their U.S. Census Bureau forms. Circle Pines needed an official count of 5,000 residents to qualify for vital state road funding. It got 4,918.

For Circle Pines, the difference between population 4,918 and population 5,025 is about 1.5 million. Dollars.

Census numbers set state and federal funding levels for local schools, hospitals and social programs. They determine whether there are enough Minnesotans to justify eight seats in the lower house of Congress or just seven. Businesses use census data when deciding where to build, expand and hire.

Bumping above the 5,000 population mark this time qualified Circle Pines for a share of state road aid — a total of $1.5 million over the next decade — to maintain seven vital connector roads around town.

"Every person means additional dollars, and all of those dollars mean we can continue to provide services and keep people's taxes lower," Goldberg said.

Every community in Minnesota worked hard to get a complete and accurate census count. They mobilized churches, schools, local businesses, anyone who could get the word out and the census forms in.

Few worked harder than the cities hovering right at the 5,000 population mark.

Few came closer than Luverne, Minn. Population 4,946.

"Initially it was a complete disappointment the city of Luverne was only 54 people short of reaching a population goal of 5,000," said City Clerk Jessica Mead, one of many who worked hard on the city's complete census count committee, in an e-mail.

Mead once dressed her young son in his hockey goalie uniform and stood with him on a street corner waving a "Honk if you've filled out the census" sign at passing motorists. Officials draped the city's iconic bison statue in a cape to remind residents to be census superheroes for the 5 minutes it takes to fill out a census form.

Though the city fell short of its goal, all that hard work — in the middle of a pandemic that made everything harder — did pay off. In 2010, only 4,745 Luverne residents turned in their census forms, or about 80% of the city's actual population. This decade's numbers found Luverne, and the entire southwestern corner of the state, growing.

"Seeing an average population change of 2% for other southwest Minnesota county seat cities, we are ecstatic to see over a 4% increase!" Mead wrote. "We are also happy to see Rock County shows a positive increase when most southwest Minnesota counties saw a decrease."

State Demographer Susan Brower, whose office helped so many communities coordinate their census plans, kept track as small cities hurtled toward the 5,000 mark or fell heartbreakingly short of the mark.

Redwood Falls, population 5,102, made it. So did the 5,105 residents of Morris.

Becker's population was 5,877 and Lindstrom recorded 4,888.

"It was so fun to see Circle Pines meet that threshold after working so hard on their census count," Brower said by e-mail. But Luverne citizens "worked very hard too and were involved in census outreach efforts from the beginning, so it was hard to see them fall below that threshold."

We'll never know how many residents of Circle Pines turned in their census forms because Census Man asked them to.

Goldberg created the character of Census Man — with an assist from his wife Barb and her sewing machine — to bring a bit of fun to a dry but vital topic. Census Man was the smiling face of demographics at the 2019 Minnesota State Fair and in countless newspaper and TV interviews.

Census Man took the nation by storm.

"I absolutely love the fact that there is a census-themed superhero," comedian John Oliver of "Last Week Tonight" said during a census-themed episode in November 2019, as clips of Goldberg rolled.

The Census Man in question was watching as the audience cracked up at the sight of his homemade cape and earnest pitch on the civic virtues of good math.

"When they put that photo up, people started laughing in the audience, and you can understand why — what a goof, right?" Goldberg said cheerfully. "But that's OK. It got the word out and that is all that matters."

As his audience giggled, Oliver offered one critique: "I will say that his only superpower seems to be reminding people that the census exists."

But that turned out to be the only superpower Circle Pines needed.

Five thousand and twenty-five residents of Circle Pines took care of the rest.

"I have no powers other than that one," Goldberg said. "But that one seemed to matter."