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Editors Note: The Week (an online news site – posted March 18, 2011) recently ran a story featuring some great stats about North Dakota. We’ve already bragged about some of these, but sure like sharing them again! Enjoy.
Just one of the many relocators to North Dakota that are increasing the state's population, Dessie Baxter moved her family from California to Bismarck. "I have found that people here are not out for themselves but for what is best all around."
As states like Michigan, California, and Illinois grapple with booming deficits and unwieldy public sector entitlements, it’s easy to forget that not every state in the union is scraping pennies together. Take North Dakota, America’s third least-populated state. According to U.S. Census data, the Peace Garden State has been growing steadily for years; its largest cities’ populations have surged dramatically. Here, a look at the numbers behind America’s most successful state:
105,549
Population of Fargo, North Dakota’s most populous city. The figure, from the latest census results, is a record high, and places Fargo above cities such as Berkeley, Calif., and Green Bay, Wis.
672,591
Population of North Dakota
4.7 percent
North Dakota’s population growth from 2000 to 2010. That’s lower than average, says USA Today, but “robust for a region that has suffered for decades from a depopulation of the Great Plains.”
17th
North Dakota’s ranking in state-by-state income per capita. It was 38th in 2000.
$147,400
The median price of a house or condominium in North Dakota in 2009.
$94,000
The median price of a house of condominium in North Dakota 2000. Yes, says Ann Brenoff at WalletPop, North Dakota is still in the middle of a housing boom.
0.95 percent
Share of houses foreclosed upon in the third quarter of 2010
3.7 percent
North Dakota’s unemployment rate, the lowest in the country. It hasn’t risen above 5 percent since 1987.
$3.2 billion
Value of agricultural commodities exported in 2009 — an 88 percent increase over the 2005 figure
169
Number of active oil rigs in the state as of February 2011, a record high
4.3 billion
Barrels of recoverable oil in North Dakota and Montana, according to the U.S. Geological Survey
400,000
Number of barrels of oil a day North Dakota could potentially produce by the end of the year
$2 billion
Amount set to be paid into the state treasury in oil, gas, and production taxes during the 2011-2013 budget cycle
$1 billion
The state of North Dakota’s current budget surplus. By contrast, neighboring Minnesota has a $5 billion budget deficit.
Sources: USA Today, U.S. Census, WalletPop, Bismarck Tribune, Huffington Post, CNN
Editors Note: The following is an editorial piece by Joel Kotkin which appeared in the Wall Street Journal on March 14, 2011. It’s the kind of article that makes us proud to be Ambassadors for the Great State of North Dakota!
By Joel Kotkin, Wall Street Journal
Living on the harsh, wind-swept northern Great Plains, North Dakotans lean towards the practical in economic development. Finding themselves sitting on prodigious pools of oil—estimated by the state’s Department of Mineral Resources at least 4.3 billion barrels—they are out drilling like mad. And the state is booming.
Unemployment is 3.8%, and according to a Gallup survey last month, North Dakota has the best job market in the country. Its economy “sticks out like a diamond in a bowl of cherry pits,” says Ron Wirtz, editor of the Minneapolis Fed’s newspaper, fedgazette. The state’s population, slightly more than 672,000, is up nearly 5% since 2000.
The biggest impetus for the good times lies with energy development. Around 650 wells were drilled last year in North Dakota, and the state Department of Mineral Resources envisions another 5,500 new wells over the next two decades. Between 2005 and 2009, oil industry revenues have tripled to $12.7 billion from $4.2 billion, creating more than 13,000 jobs.
Already fourth in oil production behind Texas, Alaska and California, the state is positioned to advance on its competitors. Drilling in both Alaska and the Gulf, for example, is currently being restrained by Washington-imposed regulations. And progressives in California—which sits on its own prodigious oil supplies—abhor drilling, promising green jobs while suffering double-digit unemployment, higher utility rates and the prospect of mind-numbing new regulations that are designed to combat global warming and are all but certain to depress future growth. In North Dakota, by contrast, even the state’s Democrats—such as Sen. Kent Conrad and former Sen. Byron Dorgan—tend to be pro-oil. The industry services the old-fashioned liberal goal of making middle-class constituents wealthier.
Oil also is the principal reason North Dakota enjoys arguably the best fiscal situation in all the states. With a severance tax on locally produced oil, there’s a growing state surplus. Recent estimates put an extra $1 billion in the state’s coffers this year, and that’s based on a now-low price of $70 a barrel.
North Dakota, however, is no one-note Prairie sheikdom. The state enjoys prodigious coal supplies and has—yes—even moved heavily into wind-generated electricity, now ranking ninth in the country. Thanks to global demand, North Dakota’s crop sales are strong, but they are no longer the dominant economic driver—agriculture employs only 7.2% of the state’s work force.
Perhaps more surprising, North Dakota is also attracting high-tech. For years many of the state’s talented graduates left home, but that brain drain is beginning to reverse. This has been critical to the success of many companies, such as Great Plains Software, which was founded in the 1980s and sold to Microsoft in 2001 for $1.1 billion. The firm has well over 1,000 employees.
The corridor between Grand Forks and Fargo along the Red River (the border between North Dakota and Minnesota) has grown rapidly in the past decade. It now boasts the headquarters of Microsoft Business Systems and firms such as PacketDigital, which makes microelectronics for portable electronic devices and systems. There are also biotech firms such as Aldevron, which manufactures proteins for biomedical research. Between 2002 and 2009, state employment in science, technology, engineering and math-related professions grew over 30%, according to EMSI, an economic modeling firm. This is five times the national average.
While the overall numbers are still small compared to those of bigger states, North Dakota now outperforms the nation in everything from the percentage of college graduates under the age of 45 to per-capita numbers of engineering and science graduates. Median household income in 2009 was $49,450, up from $42,235 in 2000. That 17% increase over the last decade was three times the rate of Massachussetts and more than 10 times that of California.
Some cities, notably Fargo (population 95,000), have emerged as magnets. “Our parking lot has 20 license plates in it,” notes Niles Hushka, co-founder of Kadrmas, Lee and Jackson, an engineering firm active in Great Plains energy development. Broadway Drive in Fargo’s downtown boasts art galleries, good restaurants and young urban professionals hanging out in an array of bars. This urban revival is a source of great pride in Fargo.
What accounts for the state’s success? Dakotans didn’t bet the farm, so to speak, on solar cells, high-density housing or high-speed rail. Taxes are moderate—the state ranks near the middle in terms of tax per capita, according to the Tax Foundation—and North Dakota is a right-to-work state, which makes it attractive to new employers, especially in manufacturing. But the state’s real key to success is doing the first things first—such as producing energy, food and specialized manufactured goods for which there is a growing, world-wide market. This is what creates the employment and wealth that can support environmental protection and higher education.
Thankfully, this kind of sensible thinking is making a comeback in some other states, such as Ohio and Pennsylvania. These hard-pressed states realize that attending to basic needs—in their case, shale natural gas—could be just the elixir to resuscitate their economies.
Note: Thanks to Ambassador and new North Dakota Department of Commerce Marketing Intern Stacey Loula for sharing her thoughts as a student-transplant to North Dakota. She truly is a “city-slicker,” born and raised, as she grew up in the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. She is currently a senior at the University of Mary, majoring in Business Communication with a minor in Public Relations.
North Dakota is home to many different cultures, Native Americans, Germans, Scandinavian’s, and Norwegian’s which have all brought with them their unique tastes and foods. As a native of Minnesota, I have found that there are many different foods that I have never had or heard of before moving to North Dakota. Although I have not experienced all of them quite yet, I would like to share with you some of the different tastes and foods that North Dakota has to offer.
Native American/Western Grub
Buffalo burgers and other buffalo dishes are on some menus, but I have heard if you want real, authentic Native American foods, your best bet is to attend a Pow-Wow. A few you might want to consider:
- Nue’ta Corn Festival, held in Mandan in August
- Mid-Winter Pow-Wow, which takes place on the day of New Year’s Eve in New Town
- Twin Buttes Pow-Wow, in June
- United Tribes International Pow-Wow, held in Bismarck in September
German-Russian Grub
Many German/Russian traditional foods remain popular in the state, particularly Knoepfla soup, Fleischküchle, and Kuchen. Knoeplfa soup is true comfort food, mixing dumplings and potatoes in a creamy chicken broth, it is unlike any other soup you could have. Fleischküchle is a savory, deep-fried turnover which can contain a variety of fillings, but the most common is seasoned ground beef. For dessert, Kuchen is the hands-down favorite. Kuchen, as the German-Russians prepare it, has a cake-like crust with a custard filling, which often includes fruit.
You can find German-Russian dishes at numerous local restaurants:
The city of Beulah is noted for their Fleischkuchle, which you’ll find not only at restaurants, but fairs, festivals, a few roadside stands, and even the Dairy Queen.- Kroll’s Kitchen restaurant chain in Fargo and Bismarck to be the best place for Knoepfla soup, as well as other German-Russian dishes.
- New Leipzig, Leipziger Hof Restaurant is a popular gathering place to enjoy dishes like schnitzel (deep-fried, breaded meat, usually veal) and Russian-style borscht (soup made with cabbage, and often beets).
- Wishek, which calls itself the “Sauerkraut Capital of the World.” Nothing beats it!
What other German-Russian foods might you encounter in North Dakota? Sausages, spaetzle (tiny dumplings), strudel (flaky pastry with either savory or sweet fillings), and pierogies (baked or fried half-moon dumplings, which also contain either savory or sweet fillings, especially mashed potatoes or cheese). If you like pickles and happen upon German-Russian watermelon pickles, you may want to give them a try. Dill and red-hot peppers added to the brine give these watermelon pickles a nice kick.
Norwegian Grub
Among the most common Norwegian dishes are lutefisk and lefse. Lutefisk is cod which has been preserved by soaking it in lye. Lutefisk is slimy and slippery; it just slides right on down your throat (gross). It’s most definitely not my most favorite thing to eat, but who knows maybe it will be yours. It’s a love, hate thing; people generally either love it or hate it. In either case, it’s considered an acquired taste, so lutefisk may be best left to those with a more adventurous palate. On the other hand, lefse will appeal to just about anyone. This delicious thin, flat potato bread is most often served rolled up with either butter, sugar, cinnamon, or brown sugar. I like mine sometimes with just butter and other times with just brown sugar or a mix of butter, sugar, and cinnamon, but it can also be rolled around fillings, as you would use a tortilla. Lefse is one of my favorites and has been a tradition in my family for centuries; my mom makes batches upon batches every Thanksgiving and Christmas. Nothing beats homemade fresh lefse, but buying it from a grocery store is an alternative to making it from scratch.
Local Specialties
The land and rivers of North Dakota also produce a few local specialties.
- The official state fruit, the chokecherry, adds a flavorful touch to a number of food items. For instance, there’s chokecherry butter, similar to apple butter. Chokecherries are also used in jellies, fudge, barbecue sauce, and more.
With North Dakota’s vast, unspoiled lands and its lakes and rivers, hunting and fishing are popular pastimes. Local fish you may catch or find at a local restaurant include:
Northern Pike, Walleye, Bass, Perch, Trout, Catfish and Chinook Salmon.
Among wild game there is:
Ducks, geese, pheasants, grouse, partridge, wild turkey, deer, elk, moose, antelope and bighorn sheep.
In addition, North Dakota boasts a few wineries, all of which offer tours and tastings.
- For a number of grape wines like Merlot and Riesling, the main establishment is Red Trail Vineyards in Buffalo.
- Dakota Hills Winery in Knox produces a few grape wines, though most of their wines are native fruit wines and honey wines.
- Maple River Winery in Casselton and Point of View Winery in Burlington produce only non-grape wines, mainly fruit and honey wines. Fruit wines you’ll find include chokecherry, crab apple, wild plum, elderberry, apple, raspberry, and many more. Rhubarb wine is another variety, and Maple River also makes dandelion and pumpkin wines.
You may not find these wines outside of North Dakota, so if you love wine, stopping by a winery would be a fun and tasty adventure.
In the Peace Garden State, there are plenty of food options to choose from. Trying some of the state’s local cuisine, whether buffalo, kuchen, lefse, or chokecherry jelly, you can’t go wrong and it will give you a real taste of North Dakota and our land of many cultures.
