Mid-sized cities in Missouri are seeing steady population gains as residents leave surrounding rural communities — a shift economists say is reshaping business growth, labor markets and regional identity across the state.
According to Charles Gascon, economist and research officer for the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and a presenter at the Southeast Entrepreneurship and Economic Development Symposium (SEEDS) on Nov. 20 in Cape Girardeau, cities like Cape Girardeau, Springfield and Joplin are drawing more new residents than major metropolitan areas such as St. Louis and Kansas City. Gascon pointed to several reasons for the trend, including hospitals and healthcare systems acting as economic anchors, the availability of more affordable housing and a “business environment more conducive to growth.”
Gascon said those factors are helping mid-sized cities expand more quickly than Missouri’s largest metros, which face barriers such as limited land for development, tight housing markets and higher levels of competition…