October 2, 1980, Waterloo announced a Sister Cities partnership (officially recognized April 1981) with Porta Westfalica in (then) West Germany. Due primarily to the efforts of Vera Kohlmeier of Waterloo and Helmut Macke of Porta Westfalica, it came about as a result of genealogical research, which concluded that perhaps two-thirds of Monroe County's German population could trace their ancestry back to this region of northern Germany.Porta Westfalica itself came about in 1973 as a conglomeration of 15 villages into a city of over 40,000. Located on the Weser River in northern Germany, Porta Westfalica is situated in a valley between two large hills. Trips by large groups typically occur every two years, including visits by the Waterloo German Band and the Bläserkreis, Porta's 70-member youth brass band. Charitable donations have also been raised for East German refugees and the victims of the 1993 flood. This partnership, which goes by the portmanteau Portaloo, has since assisted other communities in the area to establish Sister Cities programs of their own, including Columbia/Gedern, Belleville/Paderborn, and Millstadt/Groß-Bieberau. "Portaloo" has been honored with seven coveted Reader's Digest awards for its Sister Cities program. Every summer this city holds it annual "Porta Westfalica Fest" or "PortaFest" in honor of its sister city. In 2017, Waterloo was named by Safewise.com as the 12th Safest City In America (with population over 10,000). Demographics As of the census of 2000, there were 7,614 people (8,945 as of 2003 special census), 2,912 households, and 2,076 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 3,015 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 98.78% White, 0.01% African American, 0.29% Native American, 0.33% Asian, 0.17% from other races, 0.42% from two or more races, and 0.68% of the population were Hispanic or Latino. There were 2,912 households, out of which 37.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.3% were married couples living together, 9.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.7% were non-families. 25.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.53 and the average family size was 3.05. In the city, the population was spread out, with 26.1% under the age of 18, 8.1% from 18 to 24, 30.4% from 25 to 44,