Downtown Minneapolis Population Continues To Rise

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The population of downtown Minneapolis just keeps getting bigger, according to the Minneapolis Downtown Council.

During its annual meeting Monday, the council announced that since 2006 the downtown Minneapolis population has grown by more than 36 percent.

That means more than 43,400 people currently live in the heart of the City of Lakes.

The top three employers in the area are Target, Hennepin County Medical Center and Wells Fargo.

Other stats from 2017 include:

-- Downtown Minneapolis hosted 624 conventions, with 575,000 attendees
-- Metro Transit ridership on buses and trains topped 81.9 million
-- Minneapolis topped $1 billion in construction permits for the 6th straight year
-- Downtown workers picked up 212,394 bags of trash, removed 32,084 gum spots and recycled 2,394 bags worth of various materials.