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Young people like St. Louis

In last three years, more young adults have moved into the region than have moved out.

BY TIM LOGAN • tlogan@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8291


Anna Allen and her husband Adrian sit down for a drink at Coffee Cartel in the Central West End on Friday, December 2, 2011. In the last few years, more young adults have moved to the metro St. Louis area than away from it. Photo by Johnny Andrews, jandrews@post-dispatch.com

A funny thing happened here in the past few years. More young adults moved into the St. Louis region than moved out.

Not as many as in some so-called "cooler" cities, and maybe only because fewer people were moving in general from 2008 to 2010 as the nation wrestled with a deep recession and weak recovery.

But in each of those three years, according to new census data crunched by the Brookings Institution, on average, 870 more people age 25 to 34 came to the St. Louis area than left it. That is the opposite of what happened the previous three years and runs counter to the general trend of recent decades. After a long time spent watching young adults move away, and the St. Louis region slowly get grayer, a lot of people say this seems like progress.

Wooing young people has been a big focus in recent years for the groups that try to grow St. Louis' economy. Ranging from efforts by the Regional Chamber and Growth Association to St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, "talent" initiatives and young adult councils have been launched in a bid to stem what some call a "brain drain" and spur fresh thinking in a place that is sometimes seen as stodgy and closed. Grass-roots groups have sprung up with the same ideas.

For an aging region, young adults are a sort of economic vitamin boost. People in their late 20s and early 30s are building careers and choosing where to settle down. Capturing them, and their talent, can mean a stronger workforce, which helps grow and attract companies — which means more jobs.

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