Featured trends
Our researchers spotlight interesting trends as they update data on the site.
Today, at least one in five residents is an older adult in 39 of Minnesota's 87 counties. It will be 59 counties by 2020 and 80 counties by 2030, according to projections. Counties in the Twin Cities 7-county region are expected to stay below the 20-percent-older-adults mark for the next few decades.
Over the past decade, the proportion of Minnesota students graduating from high school on time has increased by nearly 7 percentage points. Black and Hispanic students' on-time graduation rates have each increased by 24 percentage points in the past decade, from 41 percent in 2006 to 65 percent in 2016. Graduation rates continue to be lower for Minnesota students of color than white students.
Minnesota and the U.S. as a whole saw a substantial drop in the number and proportion of residents without health insurance between 2013 and 2015. In Minnesota, 242,798 (5.2%) residents under age 65 lacked health insurance in 2015, down from 436,000 (9.3%) in 2013. Nationally, the rate dropped nearly 6 percentage points.
Our state’s serious crime rate has steadily declined over the past two decades, and remains below the U.S. rate. Serious crimes include both violent and property crimes, and violent crime remains a small portion of all reported serious crime.
Every region of the state is seeing growth in their populations of color. In fact, 4 of the 7 regions would have seen declines in population without the increase in residents of color- Northland, Northwest, Southern and Southwest.
Median household income in the Twin Cities 16-county region continues to slowly increase, and now stands at $69,100. This still remains more than $8,000 less than in 1999. The newest data also show gaps remain throughout the state depending on where you live, your gender and your race and ethnicity.
For the past several years, the proportion of Minnesota students graduating on time has been on the rise. But, lower-income students consistently fare worse. In 2015, 90% of higher-income students graduated on time, while just 67% percent of lower-income students received their diplomas on time.
More than 250,000 people of color –1 in 4 – lives in poverty in our state. That is more than 3X the rate of white Minnesotans in poverty. Poverty rates are especially high among certain groups including African Americans (38%), American Indians (32%), and Hispanics (23%).
Almost 600,000 Minnesota households are cost-burdened, or pay 30% or more of their income for housing. Mirroring the nation, the share of households paying too much for housing has decreased in recent years after rising sharply in the 2000s. Homeowners are much less likely than renters to be cost-burdened.
MORE Insights
Recent articles highlighting key trends and issues:
2016 year-end: How Minnesota stacks up
Racial disparities in Minnesota: better, worse, or the same?
Immigration in Minnesota: a changing story
6 things you should know about poverty in Minnesota: Myth-busters edition
New data
Minnesota's poverty rate stands at just under 10 percent, the lowest poverty rate we've seen since before the Great Recession.
Median household income stands at $65,600 in Minnesota, up $1,300 from a year ago and on par with median household income before the Great Recession.
Twenty-six percent of Minnesota households are housing cost-burdened, paying 30 percent or more of their income for housing. The share of Minnesota households paying too much for housing has been trending downward since 2009.
Eight percent of Minnesota's residents are foreign-born, compared to 14 percent nationally.
Seventy-eight percent of adults in Minnesota are working, equivalent to pre-recession levels. Only neighboring North Dakota has a higher proportion of adults working.
Minnesota's serious crime rate was 2,363 crimes committed per 100,000 residents in 2016, representing a fourth consecutive year of decline in the serious crime rate.
There are 1.3 million children and youth (age 0-17) living in Minnesota, or 23 percent of the state's population.
Residents of color compose 19 percent of Minnesota's total population, up from 12 percent in 2000.
Fifty-eight percent of 8th graders were proficient in math in 2017. The trend in 8th grade math proficiency has been flat since 2013.
Fifty-seven percent of Minnesota's 3rd graders were proficient in reading in 2017, marking five years of relatively flat results on this measure.
Minnesota Compass
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