Carlton County, MN

County Profile

36,518 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Carlton 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.

64out of 100
Area Score
Top 43% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity1102nd of 1,255 counties34
SchoolsTop 21% of 973 counties73
GrowthTop 36% of 1,226 counties58
Housing affordabilityTop 24% of 1,255 counties100
Climate1239th of 1,254 counties47
Physical resilienceTop 18% of 1,255 counties83
Access704th of 1,255 counties79
Economic stability685th of 1,255 counties59
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 5.2% and the Opportunity signal places Carlton County in the bottom 12%.

In the public schools here, 49% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 15.0 students for every teacher.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Carlton County in the top 18% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
36,518
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$80,573
Top 17% nationally
Density
42/sq mi
861.2 sq mi of land
Median age
41.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Carlton County
Minnesota
Metro area
Duluth, MN-WI
Nearest major airport
DLH
28 mi · Duluth Intl
Median home value
$245,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.2% is lower than 17% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

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

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,049$80,573Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,878$39,410Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.9%Bottom 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.0 minBottom 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher26.5%Top 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment16,228Bottom 15%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-3.9%Bottom 10%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-3.4%Bottom 6%June 2026
Labor force17,114Bottom 15%June 2026
Labor force participation59.3%Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.4%Top 30%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.2%Top 17%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.72.2
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 5.2% 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
202120222023202481k69k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $80,573 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.

49% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 58% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.0 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
23
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
48.9%
Top 31% in Minnesota
Reading proficiency
58.0%
Top 8% in Minnesota
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
CLOQUET SENIORCLOQUET PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT76122.4
CLOQUET MIDDLECLOQUET PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT75217.143%65%
WINTERQUIST ELEMENTARYESKO PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT68416.373%69%
LINCOLN SECONDARYESKO PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT60318.857%72%
WASHINGTON ELEMENTARYCLOQUET PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT49513.447%50%
CHURCHILL ELEMENTARYCLOQUET PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT35110.059%57%
BARNUM ELEMENTARYBARNUM PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT34813.955%61%
BARNUM SECONDARYBARNUM PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT31216.425%45%
MOOSE LAKE ELEMENTARYMOOSE LAKE PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT28512.437%55%
MOOSE LAKE SECONDARYMOOSE LAKE PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT27614.535%35%
WRENSHALL ELEMENTARYWRENSHALL PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT18714.423%36%
SOUTH TERRACE ELEMENTARYCARLTON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT16311.659%63%

33.3% 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 $1,009 takes 15% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.0 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
15.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,009
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$245,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.04Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate80.0%Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±6215,896Top 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$61$1,009Top 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$6,536$245,100Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income15.0%Bottom 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate11.4%Bottom 37%2024 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
58/ 100
Top 36% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 3 consecutive years, 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 2% since 2020, reaching 36,745 in 2024.

Permit activity has risen for 3 consecutive years.

At 4.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
146
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.0
Top 38% nationally
Year over year
+30%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
28.8%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202437k36k
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
202220232024202514976
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+96%).

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, 27.1 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

83 / 100
Physical resilience

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

LightningModerate
Inland floodingElevated

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

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
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 Carlton County rather than Carlton 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 28 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Duluth IntlDLH28 mi10,591 ft
Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-ChamberlainMSP122 mi11,006 ft
Chippewa Valley RgnlEAU133 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
64
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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 Carlton County, MN