Minnesota

Minnesota by the Numbers:
Key Statistical Data and Facts

Key Details

• Minnesota is the 25th most populated state, with around 4,509,200 residents as of 2022.
• Minnesota’s population is almost evenly distributed between males and females, with 51% being female.
• As of 2023, John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, serves as the 56th Governor of Minnesota.
• Approximately 86% of Minnesota residents aged 25 years and older had a high school graduate degree or higher.
• The median household income in Minnesota is $52,087, while married couple families earned a median income of $88,242, and non-family households earned a median of $30,626. 
• 43.5% of adults 15 years and over are married, whereas 36.4% had never been married
• The life expectancy at birth in Minnesota is 73.1 years as of 2021.

Minnesota Population Demographics

Located in the north-central United States, Minnesota is ranked the 22nd most populous state in the U.S. According to the United States Census Bureau, Minnesota is home to 5,717,184 residents as of 2022. Approximately 5.9% of persons living in the Land of 10000 Lakes were under five years, 23.1% were below 18, and 16.7% were 65 years and above.  

Compared to the number of residents as of April 1, 2020, the North Star State recorded a 0.2% increase in population (10,690) between 2020 and 2022. Likewise, Minnesota’s population grew 0.6% between 2020 and 2021, indicating the addition of 35,542 residents.

The Gopher State has a near-even gender split. 49.9% of Minnedota’s population were females, while the male gender made up 50.1% of the state’s population. Between 2017 and 2021, foreign-born persons comprised 8.5% of Minnesota’s population.

Minnesota Housing

2,547,955 housing

Per data from the United States Census Bureau, Minnesota had 2,547,955 housing units (or apartments) as of July 1, 2022, marking an increase of 62,397 between 2020 and 2022.

2,253,990

Census data showed 2,253,990 were occupied while 231,568 were uninhabited. In addition, 31,096 privately-owned housing units were authorized by building permits in Minnesota in 2022 alone.

72.3%

The average number of persons per household between 2017 and 2021 was 2.49, while the average number of people per household decreased to 2.45. Minnesota's owner-occupied housing unit rate between 2017 and 2021 was 72.3%. On the other hand, 27.7% of the total apartments in Minnesota were lodged by renters.

73%

In 2020, 73% of the total apartments in Minnesota were owner-occupied, while tenants occupied 27% of the state’s total housing units.

$1,081

Accordingly, the median gross rent (or monthly housing cost expenses for renters) between 2017 and 2021 was calculated to be $1,081.

$250,200

The United States Census Bureau also reported that the median value of owner-occupied housing units between 2017-2021 was $250,200.

$1,682

The median selected monthly owner costs (with a mortgage) between 2017 and 2021 was $1,682, while the median selected monthly owner costs (without a mortgage) between 2017 and 2021 was $581. Meanwhile, Minnesota’s median household income in 2020 and 2021 stood at $77,720 and $77,706, respectively.

Minnesota Racial Demographics

Minnesota is home to people of different races and ethnicities, including Whites, Blacks or African Americans, American Indians, Asians, Hawaiians, and Latinos.

All race groups have grown significantly in Minnesota; between 2010 and 2018, the state has added five times as many people of color as non-Hispanic White residents, according to the 2018 population estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Key findings further showed that Blacks, or African Americans, were Minnesota's fastest-growing racial group between 2010 and 2018. This race grew by 36%, adding more than 96,500 people. The Asian population, which grew by 32%, adding 69,800 people between 2010 and 2018, was the second fastest-growing population. Within the same period, the population of Hispanics or Latinos rose by 24%, adding 59,000 people between 2010 and 2018.

Elections in Minnesota

Between 1858 and 2023, there have been 41 governors of Minnesota, with a majority emerging from the Republican Party. 14 Democrats and 26 Republicans have been governors between 1958 and 2023. However, as of 2023, Minnesota has not voted for a Republican for president since 1972. 

Jesse Ventura, a member of the Republican Party, was Minnesota’s governor between 1999 and 2003. Tim Walz, a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and incumbent governor of Minnesota as of 2023, assumed office on the 7th of January, 2019 

As of 2023, Minnesota had two senators (senior and junior) in the U.S. Senate; Amy Jean Klobuchar and Christine Elizabeth Smith, both members of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. Amy Jean Klobuchar assumed the office of the senior United States senator in 2007, while Christine Elizabeth Smith took the office of the junior United States senator for Minnesota in 2018. 

2020 Presidential Election

The 2020 United States presidential election in Minnesota was held on November 3, 2020. Donald Trump of the Republican Party and Joe Biden of the Democratic Party were the contenders for the office of the President of the United States. 

52.40% of the eligible voters in Minnesota voted for Joe Biden, with only 45.28% voting supporting Donald Trump. Biden got the popular vote amounting to 1,717,077, while Trump had a total of 1,484,065. 

Joe Biden

Donald Trump

Minnesota Voting Statistics

According to the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State, Minnesota’s estimated Voting Eligible Population (VEP) as of 2022 was 4,140,218. However, the total number of those who voted in the 2022 general election was 2,525,873. Out of them, 3,562,753 people registered to vote before the general election, while 141,095 people registered to vote on election day.  

The U.S. Elections Project revealed that the preliminary turnout percentage during the 2020 November general election stood at 60.4%. 

In the 2020 general election, there were 3,292,997 voters, according to the Minnesota Secretary of State. Approximately 3,588,300 people registered to vote before the general election, while 259,742 registered on election day.  

In contrast to previous years, the general election's turnout rate significantly increased in 2020 (79.96%).  

General Election 

How Educated is Minnesota

According to the Office of Higher Education, Minnesota ranks 2nd (50%) nationally, behind Massachusetts (52%), based on population percentage (aged 25 to 64) with an associate degree or higher. In the 25 to 44 age bracket, 54% have an associate degree or higher. 

Between 2017 and 2021, 93.6% of people 25 years and older had completed high school or had a higher degree. Within the same year range, the percentage of Minnesotans in the 25 and above age group with a bachelor’s degree or higher qualification was 37.6%. According to the 2021 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, the percentage of people with bachelor’s degrees or higher qualifications in Minnesota was 38.9%. 

According to data from the US Census Bureau, 156,547 persons between 18 and 24 had completed high school in 2021. In the same year, 67,031 individuals in the 18 to 24 age range had a bachelor's degree or higher education. Additionally, 218,149 Minnesotans under 24 and those under 18 held a bachelor's or associate's degree. 

Approximately 3,669,900 Minnesotans aged 25 and older had completed high school as of 2021, and 993,883 had earned a bachelor's degree or above. Additionally, 338,766 Minnesotans aged 25 to 34 held bachelor's degrees, while 706,655 had associate degrees. 

Minnesota has nearly 200 post-secondary schools, with more than 20 private colleges and universities available. Additionally, the state funds two public university and college systems, including the University of Minnesota's five main campuses and the 37 schools that make up the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System. 

Minnesota’s Educational Attainment Goal 2025 is to increase the percentage of the population aged 25 to 44 with a postsecondary certificate or higher to 70 percent by 2025. 

Minnesota Employment Rate

Minnesota has a labor force of 3,087,713 people as of April 2023. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Minnesota has a labor force participation rate of 68.1% and an employment-population ratio of 66.1%. A total of 3,000,031 people in this labor force were employed, while 87,682 were unemployed.

According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate was 2.80%. Notably, Minnesota’s unemployment rate ranged between 2.8% to 3.0% in the first of 2023. In 2021, the total number of employer establishments in Minnesota was 152,836, taking the total employment in the state to 2,627,416.  

Average Income in Minnesota

Between 2017 and 2021, the median household income in the Gopher State was $77,706, while the per capita income at the time was $41,204, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. However, in 2019, the median household income was $74,593, increasing by over $2000 in 2021 to hit $77,720. 

The 2021 American 1-Year Survey showed that 23.1% of the families in Minnesota earned between $100,000 to $149,999 in the year 2021. On the other hand, 20.1% of non-family households earned between $50,000 and $74,999 in 2021. As of May 2022, the Minnesota median household income for a family of 4 stood at $125,753, with a per capita income of $65,514. 

Minnesota’s Department of Health reported that the state’s median household income began to increase significantly in 2012 after decreasing massively in 2009. Per the report, the average income in Minnesota had been consistently higher than the national average over time. 

Families in Minnesota

Minnesota Marriage Rates

Minnesota Divorce Rates

Minnesota ranks low when it comes to the frequency of divorces in the United States. The divorce rate in Minnesota was at 7.1 per 1000 women in 2008, but the rates have been on the decrease. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the divorce rate in the state is about 2.8 divorces per 1000 people aged 15 years and above. As of 2020, 14,126 men aged 15 and above divorced their wives in Minnesota, while 14,085 women in the same age group divorced their husbands.  

Life Expectancy in Minnesota

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, Minnesota had the third longest life expectancy of 79.1 years as of 2020, with Cancer being the leading cause of death. Injuries from firearms cause 10.0 deaths per 100,000 people. Drug overdoses resulted in 24.5 deaths per 100,000 people, and homicide accounted for 4.3 deaths per 100,000 people. 

Minnesota Crime Rates

Minnesota has a lower violent crime rate than the U.S. as a whole. However, since 2019, there has been an increase in the rates of all types of crimes in the state of Minnesota. In 2020 and 2021, the rate of violent crime rose to the highest level in a decade, although it remained lower than in the 1990s. As of 2020, 2,377 serious crimes were committed per 100,000 residents in Minnesota. According to Minnesota Compass, the most prevalent major crime in the state was theft, which was reported more than twice as frequently as all other serious crimes put together. 

Minnesota Incarceration Rate

82 jails

As disclosed by the National Institute of Correction, the jail system in Minnesota comprises 82 jails in 87 countries.

7,070

In 2020, the jail population was 7,070

8,148

However, the number of prisoners under the jurisdiction of the state of Minnesota correctional authorities was 8,148 as of December 31st, 2020.

$632,104,000

Minnesota-operated prison facilities had a staff of 4,384 employees and a budget of $632,104,000 in 2020.

8,003

Minnesota's total number of prisoners under federal or state jurisdiction increased to 8,003 in 2021.

Minnesota Bankruptcy Rate

2022

12,040 bankruptcy cases

The rate of bankruptcy in Minnesota has been steadily declining since 2014. There were 12,040 bankruptcy cases in the state in 2014, per data from the District of Minnesota Bankruptcy Court. However, bankruptcy cases fell to 5,653 and 5,447 in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Between January 2023 and April 2023, 2,107 bankruptcy filings were recorded by the United States Bankruptcy Court District of Minnesota. 

Weird Laws in Minnesota

Minnesota has quite a few weird laws, which include but are not limited to the ones listed below: