Blaine, which has opened up to residential construction in recent years, is the new No. 1 with 5,020 new residents, after not even making the Top 10 list in the 1990s. While the Met Council views as stable the population of the core cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul, some expect those numbers to increase to reflect the loft and condo boom.

Overall, the council estimates, the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan area was home to 2.7 million people as of April 2003, having grown by nearly 100,000, or 3.7% since April 2000.

"We're on course to add nearly a million people to the region between 2000 and 2030, and nearly half a million new households," says Peter Bell, council chair. Council officials attribute steady growth in the region primarily to economic performance. Although the Twin Cities economy was in a mild recession during the first three years of the decade, registering a job loss of 25,700 or 1.5%, its performance relative to other major US metropolitan areas remained strong.