Cloquet, Minnesota

Area Profile

12,537 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Cloquet, in Carlton County.

57out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 35% of 2,944 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3768th of 3,904 cities measured25
SchoolsTop 40% of 2,668 cities measured59
Growth2286th of 2,973 cities measured34
Housing affordabilityTop 31% of 4,223 cities measured90
Climate4205th of 4,223 cities measured47
Physical resilienceTop 14% of 4,182 cities measured87
Access2875th of 4,226 cities measured86
Economic stability2840th of 4,226 cities measured51
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.2% and the Opportunity signal places Cloquet in the bottom 3%.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Cloquet in the top 14% for physical resilience.

A major airport is 17 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
12,537
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$61,367
Bottom 41% nationally
Density
356/sq mi
35.2 sq mi of land
Median age
37.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Carlton County
Minnesota
Metro area
Duluth, MN-WI
Nearest major airport
DLH
17 mi · Duluth Intl
Median home value
$212,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.2% is lower than 19% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 3.4% over the past year, to 16,228 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$4,532$61,367Bottom 41%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$4,590$38,223Top 37%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate15.9%Top 33%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute18.2 minBottom 12%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher25.8%Top 38%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment16,228Bottom 17%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-3.9%Bottom 7%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-3.4%Bottom 4%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force17,114Bottom 18%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation63.3%Top 40%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$61,560Bottom 21%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$50,000Bottom 42%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.4%Top 32%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate5.2%Top 19%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202464k55k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $61,367 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Duluth, MN-WI
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides5,660$36,390
Registered Nurses4,410$96,940
Retail Salespersons3,490$34,650
Cashiers3,290$33,020
Fast Food and Counter Workers2,910$29,260
General and Operations Managers2,690$85,930

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Carlton County, MN, which contains this city.

47% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 58% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.5 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
9
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.5
across all schools here
Math proficiency
47.5%
Top 50% in Minnesota
Reading proficiency
58.4%
Top 26% in Minnesota
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
CLOQUET SENIORCLOQUET PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT76122.4
CLOQUET MIDDLECLOQUET PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT75217.143%65%
WASHINGTON ELEMENTARYCLOQUET PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT49513.447%50%
CHURCHILL ELEMENTARYCLOQUET PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT35110.059%57%
CLOQUET EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATIONCLOQUET PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT83
CLOQUET AREA ALT. ED. PROGRAMSCLOQUET PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT7412.3
Northern Lights AcademyNorthern Lights Academy Cooperative147.0
CAAEP EXTENDED DAY PROGRAMCLOQUET PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT7
SHARED TIMECLOQUET PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT6

42.6% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Minnesota’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,024 takes 20% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.5 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
20.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,024
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$212,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.47Top 37%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate65.9%Bottom 30%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2445,662Top 10%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$91$1,024Top 46%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$12,524$212,700Top 44%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.0%Top 41%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate5.9%Bottom 33%of 32,0012024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
34/ 100
Ranks 2286 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, measured from 2022 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has fallen 1% since 2020, reaching 12,475 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 0.7 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
9
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.7
Bottom 25% nationally
Year over year
+50%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202413k12k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
2022202320242025113.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+167%).

Weather & climate

4 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 78°F and January a low of 2°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 31.2 inches, including 90.2 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 34, in the Good band, and one day a year passes 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

-10°10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station DULUTH, 15.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index52.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation31.2"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall90.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low2°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high78°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months41991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index34.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing56°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
34
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
52
90th percentile index
Days above 100
1
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

87 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding and lightning.

LightningModerate
Inland floodingModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, heat wave, winter weather, hail, wildfire, ice storm, tornado, strong wind, drought, landslide, coastal flooding, earthquake.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Carlton County records 0.0 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 12.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 12.7 per 100,000 residents in Carlton County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
12.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
12.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
19.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Carlton County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Cloquet rather than Cloquet itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 17 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Duluth IntlDLH17 mi10,591 ft
Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-ChamberlainMSP132 mi11,006 ft
Chippewa Valley RgnlEAU137 mi8,101 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
57
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Other cities in Duluth, MN-WI

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
DuluthSt. Louis County87,09360vs Cloquet
SuperiorDouglas County26,67759vs Cloquet
HibbingSt. Louis County16,05757vs Cloquet
HermantownSt. Louis County10,21863vs Cloquet

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

ZIP codes in Cloquet

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
5572017,448$64,16757