Incubators such as CIC St. Louis (pictured) offer mentorship, office space, and even legal services to young people looking to start a business in St. Louis.
Bye bye, brain drain?
A new study of recent U.S. census data shows St. Louis is one of several Rust Belt cities seeing a marked increase in the number of educated millennials despite a declining overall population.
St. Louis saw its overall population drop by more than 30,700 people between 2000 and 2014, but the number of college graduates under age 35 grew by more than 14,400, according to an analysis of census data collected from 2010-2014 published by Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Educated millennials now make up 12.8 percent of St. Louis’ adult population in 2010-14, compared to just 5.9 percent in 2000.
See also: Start Me Up: An A-to-Z Primer on St. Louis’ Tech Scene
With housing costs soaring in coastal cities that used to draw young people away from cities like St. Louis, data shows a wave of recent college graduates moving to more affordable places: St. Louis, Buffalo, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore.
“St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore are former Rust Belt cities that were given up for dead but are making a comeback because their universities were able to remain world-class centers of research,” author Antoine van Agtmael said.
Alex Ihnen, who writes about development in St. Louis at nextSTL.com, tells Statewide that the signs of a growing young population—such as new dog parks and coffee shops—abound in St. Louis. “Millennials are having a greater positive impact on the population of the city of St. Louis than any generation in several generations,” he said.
The increase in young, educated people moving to St. Louis isn’t new. Inhen noticed the spike in 2014, writing in a blog post titled, “Millennials are Saving St. Louis, and Why We Need More of Them:”
The Millennial generation, those born in the early 1980s to 2000, are credited with revitalizing urban neighborhoods across the nation. They’re also mocked for wearing tight jeans, riding steel bicycles, and enjoying craft beer. But only the willfully ignorant or those preening on the journalistic crutch of self-righteous certainty bestowed upon them by decades of the same, can deny the massive and unprecedented demographic shift that is remaking our inner cities.
Millennials make up the largest and most educated living generation, and cities like St. Louis have sought them out to offset deteriorating population rates and replicate tech booms, like those on the West Coast. Christine Karslake, vice president of a tech incubator network in downtown St. Louis, told Stateline about the city’s growing tech scene, where young people can find advice, support, and funding for new businesses.
“We provide many of the tools and resources needed for millennials and others to start new companies and to be able to thrive at it,” Karslake said.
Not all cities are attracting a millennial population boom. Akron gained fewer than 100 young college graduates since 2000. Among larger cities, only two—Jersey City and Washington, D.C.—saw bigger proportional gains of millennials.
Contact Lindsay Toler by email at LToler@stlmag.com or on Twitter @StLouisLindsay. For more from St. Louis Magazine, subscribe or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
