Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 2,234.
The best of Lake Edward Township’s subject grades are a B+ for health and schools; the weakest is a C for walkability. 31% of residents are 65 or older in Lake Edward Township, against 18% in Minnesota’s towns and 18% across U.S. towns. Among 274 Minnesota towns, just 3 have a higher median age than Lake Edward Township. Lake Edward Township has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
Where Lake Edward Township beats most towns.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Minnesota), ordered by how far Lake Edward Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The archive holds a map from 1973 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Explore the history →Who provides power, water and the rest in Lake Edward Township, 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 Lake Edward Township.
People 65 and older are 31% of residents (17% statewide); adults 18 to 34 are 11% of residents (22% statewide). 16% of Lake Edward Township residents are under 18, below both the Minnesota town median (23%) and the median of U.S. towns (22%). Lake Edward Township has grown 6.5% since 2020, to 2,234 residents in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate.
| Lake Edward Township | Minnesota towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 16% | 23% | 22% |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 36% | 33% | 29% |
47% women, 53% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±5.3 points. Across Minnesota, 49.9% of residents are women.
| Lake Edward Township | MN | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 8.6% | 12.1% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 7.7% | 10.7% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 4.4% | 8.8% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 6.1% | 13% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 12.9% | 13.5% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 10.2% | 11.6% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 19.4% | 12.9% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 18.7% | 10.2% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 11.9% | 7% | 7% |
| No diploma | 5.9% | 6.1% | 10.4% |
| High school | 24.1% | 23.3% | 26% |
| Some college | 19.4% | 19.5% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 15.1% | 11.8% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 21% | 25.6% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 14.5% | 13.8% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 2,200, single groups can be off by several points
26% of Lake Edward Township adults feel lonely. Lake Edward Township beats the Minnesota average on 13 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 7. 12% of Lake Edward Township adults report frequent physical distress.
| Lake Edward Township | Minnesota towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 26% | 30% | 33% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 16% | 17% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 30% | 36% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 37% | 31% | 35% |
| What stands out | Lake Edward Township | MN |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 6.8% | 9.3% |
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 8.7% | 11.4% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 11.5% | 8.5% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Lake Edward Township has cold, snowy winters and pleasant summers. Lake Edward Township’s July high is 80°F.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 67% of U.S. communities.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Most working residents leave Lake Edward Township for work: only 4% work in town. The average trip to work in Lake Edward Township is 21 minutes. Jobs based in Lake Edward Township grew to 682 in 2023, 44 more than in 2013.
| Lake Edward Township | Minnesota towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 21 minutes | 23 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 4.4% | 9.8% | 8% |
| Work from home | 11% | 14% | 11% |
| Below the poverty line | 6.7% | 7% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
| Lake Edward Township | Minnesota towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.5 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 4.3% | 4.7% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Merrifield Lions Park | — | 4 |
| 2. Lake Hubert Depot | — | 1 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
1 within 15 miles of the center of Lake Edward Township
About 1 of every 100 Lake Edward Township residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Minnesota.
Township in Minnesota, United States
Lake Edward Township (or Lake Edwards Township) is a township in Crow Wing County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 2,108 at the 2020 census. The unincorporated community of Merrifield is located within Lake Edward Township.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
4 towns share a border with Lake Edward Township.
| Town | MN rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Edward Township | — | — | C+ | — | B+ | B+ |
| Pelican Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Nisswa | — | — | C | A | B+ | A− |
| Center Township | — | — | C+ | — | B+ | B+ |
| Merrifield | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Lake Edward Township, Nisswa and Center Township have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Lake Edward Township and Center Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Pelican Township and Merrifield aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Lake Edward Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C+.