U.P.'s yo-yoing population puzzles pros

By MATTHEW HALL
Capital News Service
LANSING – A curious, century-old population trend in the Upper Peninsula shows a yo-yoing cycle of growth and decline every 20 years. The U.P. grew slightly in the 1910s, 1930s, 1950s, 1970s, 1990s and, just like Old Faithful, is growing early in the 2010s, according to data from the U.S. Census. It declined slightly in the other decades, including a loss of 2 percent from 2000 to 2010. Projections by economist George Fulton of the University of Michigan suggest that the pattern will continue with a 3.3 percent jump this decade. The reasons for such a trend are speculative, but Yoopers can hazard a guess.