New Ulm, a small town in Minnesota, continues to be predominantly white, maintaining a population that has remained largely unchanged for the past 50 years. While the rest of the state has seen significant growth and diversification, New Ulm’s demographic makeup has remained mostly constant.
Situated approximately 100 miles southwest of Minneapolis, New Ulm is home to about 13,863 residents, with an overwhelming 93% identified as white, according to the latest estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The town’s demographic uniformity is notable, with a large majority of its residents tracing their ancestry back to Germany. The German language is still commonly spoken in many households, as reported by the Minnesota Star Tribune.
New Ulm gained national attention for its lack of diversity in a study conducted by National Geographic in the 1980s, which identified it as the least diverse city of its size in the U.S. At that time, the community was 99.2% white.
While there has been a slight increase in diversity over the decades—rising by 6%—the town’s population size has remained virtually static. Back in 1980, New Ulm’s population was approximately 13,755, only slightly less than today.
In stark contrast, the population of Minnesota as a whole has surged by nearly 2 million people over the same period. The state’s demographic composition has shifted noticeably, with the percentage of white residents decreasing from 96% in 1980 to around 76% projected for 2025.
New Ulm is also far behind the national diversity average, which hovers around 57% white.
Its slight gains in diversity have dropped it from the country’s least diverse spot, however, landing it as the 15th least diverse city of its size today.
St. Marys, PA — another Germanic enclave — is now the country’s least diverse city of its size with about 95% of the 12,700-person population being white.
The small Pennsylvania city’s population has nearly doubled since 1980, by comparison to the stagnant New Ulm.
Part of what historically drove the lack of diversity in New Ulm was how tightly the community clung to its German roots.
“You were coming into New Ulm and predominantly the people spoke German and practiced German traditions and [if] you werenât German,” longtime New Ulm resident Darla Gebhard, 76, whose grandparents and parents all spoke German at home, told the Star-Tribune.
“Iâm sure you feel ⦠like an outsider until you assimilated or got to know people,â Gebhard said.
New Ulm’s German residents also tended to become farmers on their own land, with property being passed down through generations who remained or returned to work the fields.
And while the intensity of those traditions has waned, New Ulm still leans into its German identity as a key part of its tourism industry — with German restaurants and festivals becoming a key part of the local economy.
âWhy do we cling to our German identity today? Itâs because it is worth money,â said Gebhard. âItâs a business.â
