St. Paul, the state capital · Photo: McGhiever · CC BY-SA 3.0How Minnesota stacks up
Minnesota’s strongest suits are widespread home ownership and healthy residents (only 16% of adults in fair or poor health). Overall it ranks 3rd of 51, an A+. There is no weak subject here: its lowest grade is a B−.
Each subject puts the official state figure beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
13th of 51A−76/100 Comfortably on the safe side. Measured by the FBI, violent crime here comes to 226 per 100,000 residents, 31% below the national figure. It leads its neighbors on safety, ahead of Wisconsin. Dayton leads its towns at #199 nationally; 15% of residents live in top-quarter towns.
Counting property crime too (property + 4 × violent, the weighting our town grades use): 20th lowest.
Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, state estimate 2025.
Measure: reported crime per resident over the engine’s three crime years (property + 4 × violent), as in our Safety grades. 89 Minnesota towns of 10,000+ against 3,410 nationally. Covers 93% of residents of Minnesota’s 10,000+ towns.
Quiet towns, busier cities
In St. Louis Park, property crime rather than violence puts it in the quarter reporting the most crime; violent crime there is below the national middle. Its safest larger towns are North Branch (#211), Farmington (#237) and Buffalo (#261), ranked against every U.S. town of 10,000+. At the other end are Minneapolis, St. Paul and Bloomington, in the quarter of U.S. towns reporting the most crime per resident.
| State | Safest quarter | Most-crime quarter | Split |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Hampshire | 42% | 0% | |
| Rhode Island | 37% | 0% | |
| New Jersey | 35% | 20% | |
| Pennsylvania | 29% | 37% | |
| Maine | 29% | 15% | |
| Minnesota | 15% | 38% |
Places without a police force of their own
Each town’s figure is built from its own department’s FBI reports, so towns with gaps sit out rather than being estimated. Here the towns counted hold 93% of residents of towns of 10,000+. In Andover, Shoreview, Chanhassen and twelve other places, county or state police answer the calls, so there is no town figure. Its neighbors are counted about as fully, 93% to 100%.
Schools
18th of 51B+66/100 Somewhat above-average schools. Minnesota’s students rank 11th highest on the Nation’s Report Card: 34% reach Proficient. Town by town it lands near the middle, with Sartell its best at #336 of 5,230.
Graduation: 83.3% finish high school on time (class of 2023), 15th lowest. The grade weighs test results and graduation equally.
Per-pupil spending, $17,091 (22nd highest), is shown for context and not graded.
Source: NCES, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2024, public schools; EDFacts graduation rates; Census school finance.
Measure: graduation rate and test results, averaged; each district’s state-test proficiency is put on the NAEP yardstick (its result ÷ the state average × the state’s NAEP proficiency) so districts compare across states. 104 Minnesota towns of 10,000+ against 5,230 nationally.
Cost of living
28th of 51B−46/100 Middle of the road on cost. Wisconsin, Iowa and South Dakota all do better on affordability. Property-tax bills run $3,357 a year, the 18th highest of the 50 states and D.C. Hibbing leads its towns at #30 nationally; 24% of residents live in top-quarter towns.
Against income, home values rank 21st lowest: 3.7 times the median household’s.
Source: Census ACS 2020–24 5-year.
Measure: our cost-of-living score: home value, rent and tax bill against area income, plus the share paying 30%+ for housing. 104 Minnesota towns of 10,000+ against 5,235 nationally.
Health
10th of 51A−82/100 Healthy with few exceptions. Almost no one here lives in a bottom-quarter town; Edina and Plymouth are typical. CDC estimates put 16% of adults in fair or poor health, the 6th lowest share among the states.
Source: CDC PLACES 2025 release (BRFSS model estimates).
Measure: our health score: seven CDC PLACES measures (general, physical and mental health, obesity, diabetes, smoking, inactivity). 104 Minnesota towns of 10,000+ against 5,218 nationally.
Housing
5th of 51A92/100 A state of homeowners. Compared with 65% nationally, 72% of homes here are owner-occupied. It leads its neighbors on home ownership, ahead of Wisconsin. 21% of residents live in a top-quarter town, 25% in a bottom-quarter one; Andover ranks highest.
Source: Census ACS 2020–24 5-year.
Measure: share of occupied homes that are owner-occupied. 104 Minnesota towns of 10,000+ against 5,235 nationally.
Natural hazards
19th of 51B64/100 Slightly lower risk than average. Most of that risk is inland flooding (76%), with tornadoes a distant second. FEMA expects $113 of damage a year for every $100,000 of buildings, 27% below the national figure (16th lowest). Alexandria leads its towns at #182 nationally; 13% of residents live in top-quarter towns.
Nine federal major-disaster declarations since 2015, 20th fewest.
Behind the figure: inland flooding 76%, tornado 11%, hail 6% of FEMA’s expected losses.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index v1.20 (Dec. 2025): expected annual building loss over building value, all census tracts; FEMA disaster declarations.
Measure: FEMA National Risk Index: expected yearly building loss from 18 natural hazards, as a share of building value. 104 Minnesota towns of 10,000+ against 5,239 nationally.
Commute
14th of 51B+74/100 Short commutes nearly everywhere. 44% of residents live in top-quarter towns such as New Ulm and Willmar, and almost none at the bottom. At 22.7 minutes, the average commute is the 14th shortest among the states. Few places anywhere beat Marshall, #6 of 5,235 towns for commute times.
Source: Census ACS 2020–24 5-year.
Measure: average one-way commute of the town’s workers. 104 Minnesota towns of 10,000+ against 5,235 nationally.
Growth
21st of 51B60/100 Growing a bit faster than average. Between 2010 and 2020 it grew 7.6%, the 20th fastest change among the states. Dayton leads its towns at #169 nationally; 28% of residents live in top-quarter towns.
Builders took out permits for 3.8 homes per 1,000 residents in 2025, 21st fewest.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 and 2020 decennial counts; Census building permits.
Measure: population change between the 2010 and 2020 censuses. 104 Minnesota towns of 10,000+ against 5,079 nationally.
How Minnesota compares to its neighbors
Minnesota beats every neighbor on safety and housing; on cost of living and the commute, every neighbor beats it.
| Minnesota | Wisconsin | Iowa | South Dakota | North Dakota | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | A+ 963rd of 51 | A 944th of 51 | A 925th of 51 | B 5623rd of 51 | A− 8011th of 51 |
| Safety | A− 7615th official · 15% in top towns | B+ 7219th official · 15% in top towns | B+ 7017th official · 15% in top towns | C− 2229th official · 0% in top towns | C+ 3618th official · 0% in top towns |
| Schools | B+ 6611th official · 15% in top towns | A+ 968th official · 31% in top towns | B 6424th official · 14% in top towns | C+ 3617th official · 2% in top towns | C− 1825th official · 0% in top towns |
| Cost of living | B− 4634th official · 24% in top towns | B− 4836th official · 32% in top towns | B+ 6830th official · 64% in top towns | A− 7825th official · 68% in top towns | B+ 7421st official · 45% in top towns |
| Health | A− 826th official · 33% in top towns | B 5615th official · 11% in top towns | B 6415th official · 16% in top towns | B− 4813th official · 4% in top towns | A 927th official · 56% in top towns |
| Housing | A 927th official · 21% in top towns | B− 4822nd official · 7% in top towns | B− 4611th official · 1% in top towns | C 2819th official · 2% in top towns | D− 245th official · 0% in top towns |
| Natural hazards | B 6416th official · 13% in top towns | A 945th official · 74% in top towns | B+ 7018th official · 21% in top towns | C+ 4221st official · 0% in top towns | B+ 7414th official · 22% in top towns |
| Commute | B+ 7414th official · 44% in top towns | A− 8011th official · 53% in top towns | A 908th official · 94% in top towns | A+ 981st official · 98% in top towns | A+ 1002nd official · 100% in top towns |
| Growth | B 6020th official · 28% in top towns | C+ 3635th official · 18% in top towns | B− 5229th official · 28% in top towns | A− 7617th official · 53% in top towns | A+ 984th official · 83% in top towns |
Each cell: the subject’s grade and score, the state’s rank on the official figure (1st = the better end), and the share of residents of 10,000+ towns living in a nationally top-quarter town. Neighbor names open their report cards.
How this report card works
Two measures, side by side. The left card is the figure a state agency or federal survey publishes for the whole state, ranked against the other 49 states and D.C. The right card is built from our town grades: of everyone living in the state’s towns and cities of 10,000+, the share whose town falls in the national top quarter of 10,000+ towns. A state can do well on one and not the other; that difference is often the story.
Scores and grades. Each subject’s score (0–100) is the state’s standing among the 50 states and D.C.: the two measures’ percentiles averaged, then ranked again, the same method as our town grades. 100 is the best state, 0 the last. Letters use the town-grade scale (A+ from 95, A from 85, A− from 75 … D below 15). The overall score weighs safety 18, cost of living 18, schools 16, health 14, commute 10, housing 8, natural hazards 8, growth 8 (out of 100). D.C., a single city, is left out of the town measure and graded on official figures alone.
What it is not. A state figure averages everyone, so it cannot show whether a state is evenly good or a mix of very good and struggling places. The town measure shows the mix but leaves out towns under 10,000 and towns missing data. Neither says anything about any one neighborhood.
Schools use the Nation’s Report Card because each state’s own tests are set to different bars. Hazards use FEMA’s expected building damage, the same loss rate behind our town hazard grades. Sources are named under each figure. How grades work