LaPorte County, Indiana

County ranked by announced AI data-center load

Undisclosed Announced AI load

Campuses

Lead operator

Microsoft

Resi rate Δ (Indiana Michigan Power)

+5.1%

Home price Δ (3y)

+19.1%

Property tax Δ (3y)

+9.8%

Population (2024 ACS)

112K

Median HH income (2024 ACS)

$71,055

Key takeaways

LaPorte County's 112,141 residents have a median household income of $70,452 and a median age of 40.8. Only 21.7% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor's degree, well below the share at next-door St. Joseph County where Notre Dame sits.Source: Census ACS 2023 B01003, B19013, B01002, B15003 (FIPS 18091)
Microsoft's $1 billion La Porte campus is a 245,000 sqft build at the Radius Industrial Park. Indiana Michigan Power residential rates rose 5.1% from 2021 to 2023, adding about $86 per year to a typical household bill, and the utility serves 422,062 residential customers across the region.Source: data/sites/data_centers.csv (La Porte campus) + data/cache/utility_rate_yoy.csv (Indiana Michigan Power Co, IN)
County home prices rose 19.1% over three years against a $180,700 median home value, the steepest 3-year delta of any non-coastal Microsoft site in our cache. Property tax assessments tracked at +9.8%.Source: data/cache/realestate_yoy.csv + data/cache/property_tax_yoy.csv (FIPS 18091) + Census ACS 2023 B25077
Microsoft has now announced three Indiana Michigan Power campuses in the South Bend metro: Project Rainier in New Carlisle, Granger, and La Porte. The three sites together are the largest concentration of new AI load tied to a single mid-size Midwestern utility.Source: data/sites/data_centers.csv (Project Rainier, Granger, La Porte)

Manufacturing accounts for 22.5% of LaPorte County jobs, the highest manufacturing share in the Indiana group and the second-highest in this batch after Whitfield. Microsoft's La Porte campus lands at the Radius Industrial Park inside one of the most factory-anchored host counties of the 16.Source: Census ACS 2023 C24050_001E, C24050_004E (LaPorte County, IN)
14.0% of LaPorte residents live in poverty against a $926 median gross rent. The county has the second-highest poverty rate in this batch after Montgomery Alabama, paired with the second-cheapest rent in the Indiana group.Source: Census ACS 2023 B17001_001E, B17001_002E, B25064_001E (LaPorte County, IN)
10.5% of LaPorte residents are Black alone, the highest Black share in the Indiana AI group and a Gary-and-Michigan-City legacy. The Microsoft build adds load to a county whose population profile mirrors the broader Lake Michigan industrial arc.Source: Census ACS 2023 B02001_001E, B02001_003E (LaPorte County, IN)
7.4% of LaPorte adults are veterans and 86.7% lived in the same house a year ago. The campus arrives in a settled, veteran-heavy labor pool that has already weathered the closures of NIPSCO coal units and the Bethlehem Steel downsize.Source: Census ACS 2023 B21001_001E, B21001_002E, B07001_001E, B07001_017E (LaPorte County, IN)