When historic (1940-70) and recent (1970-74) trends in population, income, and employment for the Northern Great Plains coal region are compared with that for the entire U.S. and all U.S. nonmetro counties, data reveal a minimal population increase from 1940 to 1970, a period of declining agricultural employment and high outmigration rates. In 1970-74, migration and population trends were reversed and total employment increased; large population increases came mostly through immigration to specific coal-producing areas. Enormous socioeconomic factors will be expected to have an impact on the American Indian population, which has 9 percent of the region's total strippable coal reserves. The narrative portion of the profile looks at population and demographic patterns (towns, recent mobility, minority composition, fertility, age structure, dependence rates, educational attainment, school enrollment); employment, earnings, and labor force (employment patterns in public utilities, agriculture, manufacturing, contract construction, mining, transportation, communication, government services; earnings by sex/occupation; past labor force growth/future potential); indicators of well-being (income, poverty, family structure, housing); and implications (baseline economy, community services, regional growth). An appendix of statistical tables comprises almost half the report. (RS)