Jun

17

Study says city population tops half a million

June 17, 2008 | 6 Comments

A new study says that the US Census has significantly under counted KCMO’s population and that we actually have 533,117 people living here, not  the 450,000 or so previously thought. Besides the big boost in population, the study also shows that household incomes and purchasing power are much higher than conventional wisdom says, especially in supposedly poor East Side neighborhoods.

Overall, the study shows an urban economy in better shape than usually believed.  The population figure alone could be critical in getting more federal and state support for things like housing, transportation, health care, etc.

To conduct this study, UMKC, the city, and various community groups partnered with a national non-profit that analyzes urban markets with eye towards attracting investment and business. Similar studies in other cities have resulted in millions of dollars in new investment in urban neighborhoods.

UMKC press release

Kansas City Urban Market Assets

Southtown Council: Drilldown strikes gold

Categories: General


Comments

6 Comments so far

  1. Bryan on June 17, 2008 3:56 pm

    Excellent! Looks like someone will have to update Wikipedia…

  2. brent on June 17, 2008 4:29 pm

    Can someone explain to me how the US Census could be 18% off in its estimation of the number of people living in Kansas City? I understand that it would be impossible to get the number exactly right, but being off nearly 20% is inexcusable…

  3. Sam Newby on June 17, 2008 5:54 pm

    Brent,

    I would be happy to give it a shot -

    Unfortunately, Census data undercounts urban core areas by up to 20%. Combined with concentrations of government-subsidized housing, and high cost land assembly, commercial development in the urban core appears too risky to the real estate industry. In a national survey of developers, the International Council of Shopping Centers reported that the largest barrier to urban core development is the lack of quality information about market opportunities (Achugbue 2006).

    To overcome the lack of market information, Social Compact created the DRILLDOWN analysis that uses a multitude of city, state and commercial data records to create a more accurate picture of demographic and economic information in urban core neighborhoods. After conducting the analysis in 10 cities, the organization has uncovered 3 million persons with a little over $1.1 billion in purchasing power. These powerful findings paired with city development efforts have resulted in an impressive surge of investment in the commercial corridors of Houston, Santa Ana, Detroit, Harlem (NY) and Miami.

    The Cookingham Institute of Urban Affairs and the Center for Economic Information want to bring this vital analysis to the Kansas City region. Project KUMA (Kansas City Urban Market Assets) will be a three-year partnership between UMKC, the City of Kansas City, development councils, community development corporations and Social Compact to stimulate major investment along our underserved commercial corridors.

    First, Social Compact will conduct the DRILLDOWN analysis that will be used by Project KUMA to catalyze investment consideration through bi-annual conferences on each of the major corridors. Second, Project KUMA will partner with the city and development agencies to bundle necessary investment information (land assembly, radius market asset reports, build and codes permits, and zoning support) to attract small and large retailers into suitable sites along each of the corridors. Finally, the project will utilize the data to better inform economic development policy in the Kansas City region.

    Beyond commercial corridor development, the DRILLDOWN results will provide the basis to challenge Census projections. Increasing our region’s population benefits school districts and other agencies that received federal and state monies based upon population formulas. Nonprofits and hospitals that serve immigrants will especially gain, as the Census tremendously undercounts these populations. Moreover, federal monies allocated to the city for infrastructure, health, disaster and other similar areas will also increase based upon the data.

  4. Patrick L. on June 17, 2008 11:18 pm

    Sam, I do not know you, but excellent explanation. I believe there is a great West Wing episode that deals with this very topic! The Census really needs to be changed in how it is conducted in order to better account for and represent the people. But I also wish for world peace… and I am still waiting.

  5. ChrisM70 on June 18, 2008 9:29 am

    Good explanation. I just assumed that the population estimate was so far off because they used the same people who estimate crowd sizes at the KU celebration or the Plaza holiday lighting ceremonies! :)

    http://www.kansascity.com/216/story/580130.html

  6. 475,830 : BlogKC on February 8, 2009 8:53 am

    [...] BlogKC, June 2008: Study says city population tops half million. [...]

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