Making a Marriage Work in Central Minnesota

by Cameron Macht
January 2010

Love and Marriage

Marriage is an institution you can’t disparage, at least in central Minnesota. According to data estimates from the 2006 to 2008 American Community Survey (ACS) from the U.S. Census Bureau, the population in the Central Minnesota Planning Region is more likely to be married - and working - than in the rest of the state and nation.

Detailed demographic data are available through the American Community Survey for 11 of the 13 counties in the Central Minnesota Planning Region, including Benton, Chisago, Isanti, Kandiyohi, McLeod, Meeker, Mille Lacs, Pine, Sherburne, Stearns, and Wright counties—which comprise 95.2 percent of the region’s population. Because their populations are below 20,000 people, estimated data are not available for Kanabec and Renville counties, although they are also included in the planning region geography.

Nearly 58 percent of the region’s population age 15 years and over were married compared to 55 percent in Minnesota and 52.4 percent in the United States. Meanwhile, just 8.4 percent of central Minnesota’s couples were divorced, slightly lower than 9.5 percent statewide and 10.6 percent nationwide. Central Minnesota’s married couples were also less likely to be separated or living separately (see Table 1).

Married… With Children

The region has been experiencing rapid population growth, primarily caused by an influx of younger married-couple families. Nationwide, about 14 percent of the population under the age of 40 were married compared to 15 percent in Minnesota.

In Stearns and Wright counties, the two largest counties in central Minnesota, just over 19 percent of people younger than 40 were married.

Not surprisingly, the region also had a much higher percentage of married-couple families with children under 18 years of age, particularly in those counties surrounding the Twin Cities metro area (see Figure 1).

Of those families with young children in central Minnesota, more than three-fourths (76.6 percent) were married couples. That was nearly 8 percent higher than the number of married-couple families with young children in the United States. Conversely, the region also had a much lower percentage of children living with a single parent, encompassing about 23.4 percent of the families with children under 18. Nearly one-third (31.1 percent) of families in the United States were single-parent families, as were more than one-fourth (27.1 percent) of Minnesota families.

According to ACS data, central Minnesota had a higher percentage of women age 16 to 50 years who had a birth in the past 12 months and a higher percentage of the population under 18 years of age. Just over one-fourth (25.3 percent) of the region’s population were still under the age of 18 through 2008, including 7.3 percent under five years old.

Making A Marriage Work

Still, a little more than half of the married couples in central Minnesota had no children under the age of 18 (54.1 percent), and just over half of those (56.1 percent) had both the husband and wife in the labor force. Of married couples nationwide, just 45.5 percent had both the husband and wife actively participating in the labor force.

The remaining 46 percent of married-couple families in the region had children under the age of 18 living at home. Of those, almost three-fourths (73.4 percent) had both parents in the labor force, which was also more than 10 percent higher than the national rate (62 percent). The gap was even wider when the children were five years old or younger, with 68.3 percent of married-couple families having both spouses working, as compared to 55.9 percent nationally (see Table 2).

Child Day Care Services

Although some parents are able to work part time or alternating shifts to be able to stay home with their children, if both parents are in the labor force it often means that child day care services are necessary. Through 2008 there were 133 child day care establishments in the 13-county Central Minnesota Planning Region, providing 1,381 jobs, according to data from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program.

Since 2000 central Minnesota has added nine net new child day care establishments, a 7.3 percent expansion, as well as 165 additional jobs over the last eight years, a 13.6 percent gain. The state of Minnesota also saw an increase in the number of child day care jobs, growing at a 6.8 percent clip, meaning central Minnesota’s child care services employment grew twice as fast. The recent recession has affected the industry, however (see Figure 2).

There were 3,150 self-employed day care providers in the region in 2007 according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Non-employer Statistics program. The number of self-employed day care providers has, however, been decreasing in both the state and the region over the last couple of years. From 2005 to 2007 central Minnesota lost 1.5 percent of its day care service non-employers, while the state shrank 1.3 percent.

Stearns, Wright and Sherburne counties had the largest number of day care providers in the region, but they also had the largest populations and large numbers of commuters. They also had the largest number of young, married-couple families with both parents working. Renville and Kanabec, the two smallest counties, had the smallest number of day care services.

Child Care Occupations in Demand

With so many working families in the region, the need for child care workers remains strong. DEED’s Occupations in Demand tool (www.positivelyminnesota.com/apps/lmi/oid) shows the highest level of current demand for teacher assistants, first-line supervisors of personal service workers, preschool and child care center administrators, and cooks. Although requiring varying levels of responsibility and preparation, all of these occupations are vital.

The two largest occupations in the child care services industry are child care workers and preschool teachers, which tend to be in higher demand in the counties closest to the Twin Cities metro area where higher percentages of both parents working and commuting are more likely. In addition to current demand, all of these occupations show good prospects for the future as well (see Table 3).

Data show that the Central Minnesota Planning Region has a high reliance on young, married couples for population and business growth. Families with children often had both parents in the labor force, expanding the number of available workers while also creating strong demand for child day care services. Will these demographic patterns change as a result of the recession? And as the regional economy recovers, married-couple families will face an interesting choice – if unemployed, will they go back to work or stay home with their children? The answer will have a wide impact on the region’s economy and child care industry.

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