The population of Saint Paul City is composed of a variety of races. Almost one-third of the population is white, and the rest is made up of non-Hispanic whites. Mixed-race groups, including those of mixed-white and American Indian ancestry, made up over one-tenth of the population. The city also has a very small Puerto Rican community.
The median age for people in St. Paul is thirty-nine years old. There are roughly half as many individuals between 18 and 24 years old as there are in the city proper. The remaining fifty-one percent are aged sixty-four and older. Gender makeup was 50.9% male, 48.9% female, and 0.3% was 65 years and older. In 1910, the 3M Company moved to St. Paul, where the company still has its headquarters. Manufacturing continued in the city until 1999, when the company relocated to other facilities in the Minneapolis suburbs.
The West Seventh Neighborhood contains many of the oldest buildings in the city, as well as several newly-constructed buildings. While this neighborhood used to be an important transportation and industrial district, it is now mostly residential and commercial. Historically, St. Paul was home to mostly working-class households, although it has also had pockets of lower-income residents. The West Seventh Neighborhood extends southwest of Downtown St. Paul and is bounded by I-35E and Eagle Street.
In 1858, West St. Paul had a population of approximately 400. The city was then included in Dakota County, and was surveyed as a district of country on the west side of the Mississippi River. Sections 16 and nine intersected on the west side of the river and ran due west along it. The land north of Annapolis Street was part of the town's boundaries. This section of Saint Paul was incorporated in 1889.