Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Fridley grades C overall, 251st of 271 graded towns in Minnesota, with clear strengths and some subjects that lag. It has 8 miles of trail and it is more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns. On the other side, its crime rate is higher than 86% of U.S. towns, with 89 violent crimes reported to the FBI in 2025. Fridley’s property crime rate is 30.7 per 1,000 residents, against 8.6 in Minnesota’s towns and 9.9 across U.S. towns. Banfill Tavern is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Where Fridley beats most towns.
Where Fridley’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Minnesota), ordered by how far Fridley is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Its founding year, 1847, comes before those of 97% of the Minnesota towns we grade with a known year.
Census counts: 3,796 in 1950, 29,590 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1848 and 6 maps from 1902 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Fridley. Close and well known come first.
Big draw8 mi Stadium & arenaU.S. Bank Stadium
7 mi Stadium & arenaTarget Field
8 mi Stadium & arenaHuntington Bank Stadium
12 mi Stadium & arenaGrand Casino Arena
7 mi WaterfallSaint Anthony Falls
10 mi LakeBde Maka SkaU.S. Bank Stadium: Darb02, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Target Field: Lectrician2, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Huntington Bank Stadium: Lectrician2, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Grand Casino Arena: AlexiusHoratius, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Saint Anthony Falls: The original uploader was Mulad at English Wikipedia., Public domain · Bde Maka Ska: Tyler Vigen, CC BY-SA 4.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Fridley, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in Fridley.
Fridley draws workers from Minneapolis and beyond, has cooler summers than most of the country, though not than most of Minnesota and is healthy by national standards but behind most towns in Minnesota.
29,220 jobs are based in Fridley, 2.1 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in.
Most working residents leave Fridley for work: only 9% work in town. Since 2013, Fridley has added 6,273 jobs, to 29,220 in 2023. 12% of Fridley residents live below the poverty line.
| Fridley | Minnesota towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 12% | 7% | 9.6% |
| Work from home | 16% | 14% | 11% |
| Average trip to work | 23 minutes | 23 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $78,000 | $91,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Its public schools are run by the Fridley Public School District. Two of its 21 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fridley MiddleLargest public middle schoolGrades 5–8 | Grades 5–8 | 694 | C |
| Fridley Senior HighLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 796 | C |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MN on state tests and graduation
7.5 miles of trail in 35 parks and preserves. The biggest place to walk is Springbrook Nature Center, 135 acres with 2.7 miles of trail. The trail density in Fridley is 0.7 miles per square mile.
| Fridley | Minnesota towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 8.5% | 4.6% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.7 miles per square mile | 0.5 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Springbrook Nature Center | 2.7 mi | 135 |
| 2. Locke County Park | 0.6 mi | 72 |
| 3. Innsbruck Nature Center | 0.6 mi | 26 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Property crime runs at 30.7 per 1,000 residents, about twice the Minnesota rate, most of it theft.
Fridley’s violent crime rate is 2.9 per 1,000 residents. Fridley reports more crime per resident than most U.S. towns we grade: about 86% report less.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
July afternoons average 82.4°: cooler than most of the country, but hotter than 88% of Minnesota places with climate records; January nights average 6°.
Fridley has cold, snowy winters and pleasant summers. About 54 inches of snow falls in a winter.
| Fridley | Minnesota towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| January low | 6°F | 6°F | 22°F |
| July high | 82°F | 82°F | 85°F |
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Within Minnesota it is less healthy than 72% of the 271 graded towns: Minnesota sets a high bar.
Fridley beats the Minnesota average on 1 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 8. 73% of adults had a checkup this year in Fridley.
| Fridley | Minnesota towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 73% | 75% | 79% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 32% | 30% | 36% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 23% | 25% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 33% | 30% | 33% |
| What stands out | Fridley | MN |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 7.3% | 8.5% |
| More adults facing housing insecurity | 13% | 9.3% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Adults 18 to 34 are 26% of residents (22% statewide). Fridley has grown 4.2% since 2020, to 30,829 residents in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate. 30% of adults 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or more, vs 39% across Minnesota.
| Fridley | Minnesota towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median age | 34.7 years | 39.9 years | 40.5 years |
| Aged 65 or older | 15% | 18% | 18% |
| Under 18 | 24% | 23% | 22% |
49% women, 51% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±1.4 points. Across Minnesota, 49.9% of residents are women. Median age: women 34.8, men 34.6.
| Fridley | MN | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 15.4% | 12.1% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 8.9% | 10.7% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 9.1% | 8.8% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 17.3% | 13% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 13.5% | 13.5% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 9.3% | 11.6% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 11.8% | 12.9% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 8.7% | 10.2% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 5.9% | 7% | 7% |
| No diploma | 8.4% | 6.1% | 10.4% |
| High school | 30.8% | 23.3% | 26% |
| Some college | 22% | 19.5% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 8.8% | 11.8% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 21.9% | 25.6% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 8.2% | 13.8% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
The typical Fridley home is worth about $320,000, up 1% in a year, 8% below the Minnesota typical home.
| Fridley | Minnesota towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 63% | 75% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,326 a month | $1,192 a month | $1,185 a month |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 55% of U.S. communities. Since 1993, 11 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Fridley.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
26 within 15 miles of the center of Fridley
About 5 of every 100 Fridley residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Minnesota.
11 notable people were born in Fridley.
City in Anoka County, Minnesota, USA
Fridley is a city in Anoka County, Minnesota, United States. Its population was 29,590 at the 2020 census. It was first settled as a place named Manomin where Rice Creek flows into the Mississippi river and the Red River Oxcart trail crosses the creek. Fridley was incorporated in 1949 as a village and became a city in 1957. It is part of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area as a northern "first-ring" or "inner-ring" suburb. Most of the growth in Fridley occurred between 1950 and 1970. Fridley borders Minneapolis to the southwest. Neighboring first-ring suburbs are Columbia Heights to the south and Brooklyn Center to the west, across the Mississippi River.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
6 towns share a border with Fridley.
| Town | MN rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fridley | #251 | C | B− | D | C+ | B |
| Brooklyn Park | #199 | B | C+ | C− | B | A− |
| Spring Lake Park | #204 | B | B− | C+ | C+ | B− |
| Columbia Heights | #260 | C | B− | C | C | C+ |
| Coon Rapids | #174 | B+ | B− | C+ | B+ | B |
| Brooklyn Center | #261 | C | B− | D | C+ | B |
| Minneapolis | #262 | C | C | D− | C | A− |
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Fridley grades C overall, better than 34% of U.S. towns and #251 of 271 in Minnesota. It grades B for health, D for safety and C+ for schools. Safety is its weak spot, with a D.
That is 3.2 years of the area's median household income ($99,833 across the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI metro area). Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B−.
11 notable people were born here, including Melissa Hortman and Brooke Elliott.
