Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Moorhead grades C overall, ranked 249th of 271 in Minnesota, with clear strengths and some subjects that lag. CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 76% of the country and it is more walkable than 92% of U.S. towns. On the other side, FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 76% of U.S. communities, with inland flooding at the top. Moorhead has 12 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Solomon Gilman Comstock House and St. John the Divine Episcopal Church. Moorhead’s trail density is 1.0 miles per square mile, above both the Minnesota town median (0.5) and the median of U.S. towns (0.4). Moorhead is home to Minnesota State University Moorhead.
Where Moorhead beats most towns.
Census counts: 1,500 in 1880, 44,505 in 2020. The archive holds 23 old photos and papers going back to 1882 and 2 maps from 1895 on.
12 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Minnesota), ordered by how far Moorhead is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Who provides power, water and the rest in Moorhead, 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 Moorhead.
Moorhead sends many workers across the state line to West Fargo and has colder winter nights than nearly all U.S. towns, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Minnesota (mostly inland flooding).
22 miles of trail in 31 parks and preserves. The biggest place to walk is MB Johnson Park, 111 acres with 7.6 miles of trail.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. MB Johnson Park | 7.6 mi | 111 |
| 2. Gooseberry Park | 2.1 mi | 46 |
| 3. Horn Park | 0.9 mi | 15 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its public schools are run by the Moorhead Area Public Schools. Two of its 20 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Horizon Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 5–8 | Grades 5–8 | 2,158 | C+ |
| Moorhead High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 2,122 | B |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MN on state tests and graduation
Reported crimes fell from 1,041 to 849 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
At 3.2 per 1,000 residents, Moorhead’s violent crime rate is against 1.1 in Minnesota’s towns and 1.6 across U.S. towns. Moorhead’s property crime rate is 15.3 per 1,000 residents. Moorhead reports more crime per resident than most U.S. towns we grade: about 76% report less.
| Moorhead | Minnesota towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 3.2 per 1,000 residents | 1.1 | 1.6 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 15.3 per 1,000 residents | 8.6 | 9.9 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
72% of Moorhead adults had a checkup this year. Moorhead beats the Minnesota average on 4 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 8. 19% of Moorhead adults binge drink.
| Moorhead | Minnesota towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 72% | 75% | 79% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 18% | 16% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 25% | 23% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 31% | 35% |
| What stands out | Moorhead | MN |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 7% | 8.5% |
| Fewer adults with arthritis | 19.2% | 22.3% |
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 11.6% | 8.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
52% of working residents cross a state line to work, West Fargo among the top destinations.
About one in 5 of Moorhead’s working residents works in town. The average trip to work in Moorhead is 18 minutes. Since 2013, Moorhead has added 1,300 jobs, to 13,169 in 2023.
| Moorhead | Minnesota towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working residents who work in town | 22% | 9.7% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 18 minutes | 23 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 16% | 7% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $73,000 | $91,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 91% of Minnesota towns, with expected losses of about $394 per resident a year; that rating is what its C− for hazard risk is built on. 497 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 10 properties have flooded more than once.
Since 1978, 497 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Moorhead.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Adults 18 to 34 are 32% of residents (22% statewide); adults 35 to 64 are 33% of residents (38% statewide). 13% of residents are 65 or older in Moorhead. Moorhead has grown 4.6% since 2020, to 46,533 residents in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate.
| Moorhead | Minnesota towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median age | 31.3 years | 39.9 years | 40.5 years |
| Aged 65 or older | 13% | 18% | 18% |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 42% | 33% | 29% |
50.5% women, 49.5% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±0.6 points. Across Minnesota, 49.9% of residents are women. Median age: women 31.4, men 31.3.
| Moorhead | MN | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 12.6% | 12.1% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 10.5% | 10.7% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 18% | 8.8% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 13.8% | 13% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 13.6% | 13.5% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 9.9% | 11.6% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 9.1% | 12.9% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 7% | 10.2% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 5.7% | 7% | 7% |
| No diploma | 4.7% | 6.1% | 10.4% |
| High school | 21.6% | 23.3% | 26% |
| Some college | 20.8% | 19.5% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 11.3% | 11.8% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 28% | 25.6% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 13.6% | 13.8% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
January nights average 0.1°, colder than in 96% of U.S. towns; July afternoons average 82°.
Moorhead has cold, snowy winters and pleasant summers. About 51 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
The typical Moorhead home is worth about $291,000, up 2.4% in a year, 17% below the Minnesota typical home.
| Moorhead | Minnesota towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 58% | 75% | 73% |
| Renters paying 30%+ of income on rent | 54% | 48% | 48% |
| Median rent | $1,033 a month | $1,199 a month | $1,185 a month |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Moorhead. Close and well known come first.
4 mi Stadium & arenaFargodome
3 mi MuseumPlains Art Museum
4 mi MuseumFargo Air Museum
5 mi Zoo & aquariumRed River Zoo
in town MuseumRourke Art Museum
9 mi MuseumBonanzaville, USAFargodome: Bobak Ha'Eri, CC BY 3.0 · Plains Art Museum: AJ LEON, CC BY 2.0 · Fargo Air Museum: Fargo-Moorhead CVB, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Red River Zoo: BrielleMary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rourke Art Museum: McGhiever, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Bonanzaville, USA: Fargo-Moorhead CVB, CC BY-SA 2.0
4 within 15 miles of the center of Moorhead
About 14 of every 100 Moorhead residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Minnesota.
38,065 counted in 2010 and 44,505 in 2020; an estimated 46,533 in 2025.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts · Census Bureau estimate, July 1, 2025
12 places in Moorhead on the National Register of Historic Places.
22 notable people were born in Moorhead.
City in Minnesota, United States
Moorhead ( MOR-hed) is a city in and the county seat of Clay County, Minnesota, United States, on the banks of the Red River of the North. Located in the Red River Valley, an extremely fertile and active agricultural region, Moorhead is home to several corporations and manufacturing industries. Across the river from Fargo, North Dakota and next to Dilworth, Minnesota, Moorhead forms part of the core of the Fargo–Moorhead ND-MN Metropolitan Area. The population was 44,505 at the 2020 census. Moorhead is a hub of higher education in Minnesota, home to Minnesota State University Moorhead, Concordia College, and a campus of Minnesota State Community and Technical College. Platted in 1871, the c…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
5 towns share a border with Moorhead.
| Town | MN rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moorhead · Moorhead Township | #249 | C | C+ | C− | C+ | A− |
| Dilworth | #209 | B | C+ | D | B+ | B+ |
| Oakport Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Glyndon Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Oakport Township and Glyndon Township aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Moorhead Township and Moorhead are one community, graded once. Compare Moorhead with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Moorhead grades C overall, better than 35% of U.S. towns and #249 of 271 in Minnesota. It grades A− for health, C− for safety and C+ for schools. Hazard risk is its weak spot, with a C−.
That is 3.8 years of the area's median household income ($76,756 across the Fargo, ND-MN 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 C+.
22 notable people were born here, including Warren Magnuson and Jason Blake.
