The city of Albert Lea saw less than a 1 percent decline in population from 2007 to 2008, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Tuesday.

The 2008 city population estimate is 17,389, while the estimate in 2007 was 17,501, according to the Census Bureau. This is a difference in 112 people.

“To me that 112 isn’t anything we should get excited about,” said Albert Lea Economic Development Agency Executive Director Dan Dorman. “It is what it is. I would call it stable.”

In 2000, the U.S. Census listed Albert Lea’s population at 18,356.

Comparing this number to the newly released population estimate shows a trend in declining population — about a 5.27 percent decline since 2000.

Dorman said people already knew about the decline in population from 2000 to 2007, and the slight drop from 2007 to 2008 was not unexpected either. Declining population is a trend in many Greater Minnesota cities at this time, he said.