Becker County, MN

County Profile

35,343 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Becker County, MN.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

60out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 44% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity770th of 1,255 counties measured50
Schools760th of 973 counties measured28
GrowthTop 33% of 1,226 counties measured59
Housing affordability793rd of 1,255 counties measured88
Climate1233rd of 1,254 counties measured49
Physical resilienceTop 10% of 1,255 counties measured89
Access992nd of 1,255 counties measured65
Economic stability925th of 1,255 counties measured46
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.6% and median household income $71,388, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

In the public schools here, 39% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 13.5 students for every teacher.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Becker County in the top 10% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
35,343
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$71,388
Top 34% nationally
Density
27/sq mi
1315.0 sq mi of land
Median age
43.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Becker County
Minnesota
Metro area
Detroit Lakes, MN
Nearest major airport
FAR
51 mi · Hector Intl
Median home value
$291,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.6% is lower than 34% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 1.6% over the past year, to 18,219 employed residents.

28% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 71% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$2,046$71,388Top 34%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,943$41,842Top 20%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate12.9%Bottom 47%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.2 minBottom 33%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher28.0%Top 29%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment18,219Bottom 19%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.8%Top 31%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.6%Bottom 30%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force19,106Bottom 19%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation60.9%Top 38%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.7%Top 18%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate4.6%Top 34%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.71.9
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.6% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202471k64k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $71,388 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.

39% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 44% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.5 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
17
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.5
across all schools here
Math proficiency
39.0%
Bottom 14% in Minnesota
Reading proficiency
44.0%
Bottom 19% in Minnesota
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
DETROIT LAKES SENIOR HIGHDETROIT LAKES PUBLIC SCHOOL DIST.79114.9
DETROIT LAKES MIDDLEDETROIT LAKES PUBLIC SCHOOL DIST.61716.727%37%
ROSSMAN ELEMENTARYDETROIT LAKES PUBLIC SCHOOL DIST.56513.564%55%
ROOSEVELT ELEMENTARYDETROIT LAKES PUBLIC SCHOOL DIST.56212.849%52%
FRAZEE ELEMENTARYFRAZEE-VERGAS PUBLIC SCHOOL DIST.45313.342%41%
Lake Park Audubon High SchoolLAKE PARK AUDUBON SCHOOL DISTRICT38825.925%45%
FRAZEE SECONDARYFRAZEE-VERGAS PUBLIC SCHOOL DIST.38114.725%45%
LAKE PARK AUDUBON ELEMENTARYLAKE PARK AUDUBON SCHOOL DISTRICT2758.152%50%
OGEMA ELEMENTARYWaubun-Ogema-White Earth Schools25110.915%15%
LINCOLN EARLY CHILDHOOD ED. CENTERDETROIT LAKES PUBLIC SCHOOL DIST.64
DETROIT LAKES AREA LEARNING CENTERDETROIT LAKES PUBLIC SCHOOL DIST.5711.4
Pine Point ElementaryPine Point Public School District464.6

40.1% 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 $920 takes 15% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.1 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
15.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.1×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$920
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$291,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income4.08Top 19%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate77.2%Top 35%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±5120,005Top 36%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$49$920Top 41%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$13,486$291,000Top 21%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income15.5%Bottom 32%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate28.0%Top 11%of 3,2222024 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
59/ 100
Top 33% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, 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 grown 1% since 2020, reaching 35,444 in 2024.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 13% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 4.8 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
168
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.8
Top 32% nationally
Year over year
+7%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
12.5%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202435k35k
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
2022202320242025156134
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+16%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 79°F and January a low of -4°F.

Air quality measures a median index of 36, in the Good band, and about 2 days a year pass 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 TAMARAC WILDLIFE RE, 4.3 miles from this location.
Precipitation
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index54.02024 calendar year
Average January low-4°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high79°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10022024 calendar year
Median air quality index36.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing62°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
36
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
54
90th percentile index
Days above 100
2
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

89 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are tornado, strong wind and hail.

Winter weatherElevated
WildfireModerate
HailModerate
TornadoHigh
Strong windElevated
LightningModerate

Low or minimal exposure: landslide, cold wave, inland flooding, drought, heat wave, ice storm, earthquake.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. 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.

Becker County records 3.2 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Drug overdose deaths run at 18.2 per 100,000 residents in Becker County.

Homicide
3.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
18.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
28.3
per 100,000 residents

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 Becker 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 Becker County rather than Becker County 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 51 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Hector IntlFAR51 mi9,001 ft
Duluth IntlDLH168 mi10,591 ft
Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-ChamberlainMSP187 mi11,006 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
60
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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
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.

Cities in Becker County, MN