Douglas County, MN

County Profile

39,575 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Douglas 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.

68out of 100
Area Score
Top 29% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity752nd of 1,255 counties51
SchoolsTop 17% of 973 counties77
GrowthTop 32% of 1,226 counties59
Housing affordability792nd of 1,255 counties88
Climate1220th of 1,254 counties50
Physical resilienceTop 1% of 1,255 counties97
Access1205th of 1,255 counties37
Economic stabilityTop 47% of 1,255 counties64
The quick read

Residential permitting has slowed: 316 units authorized over the past twelve months, 22% below the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Douglas County in the top 1% for physical resilience.

The nearest major airport is 94 miles away, which is farther than most measured US locations.

At a glance

Population
39,575
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$79,043
Top 19% nationally
Density
62/sq mi
636.9 sq mi of land
Median age
44.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Douglas County
Minnesota
Metro area
Alexandria, MN
Nearest major airport
FAR
94 mi · Hector Intl
Median home value
$321,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.1% is lower than 54% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 2.5% over the past year, to 21,009 employed residents.

30% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 76% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,167$79,043Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,675$44,466Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate9.0%Bottom 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute21.1 minBottom 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher29.7%Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment21,009Bottom 25%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.2%Bottom 30%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.5%Bottom 13%June 2026
Labor force21,898Bottom 25%June 2026
Labor force participation63.0%Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.8%Top 14%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.1%Bottom 46%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.11.5
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.1% 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
202120222023202479k69k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $79,043 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.

60% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 53% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

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

Public schools
20
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
60.4%
Top 3% in Minnesota
Reading proficiency
52.8%
Top 33% in Minnesota
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Alexandria Area High SchoolAlexandria Public School District1,31518.0
Discovery Middle SchoolAlexandria Public School District89816.057%52%
Lincoln ElementaryAlexandria Public School District48115.565%58%
OSAKIS ELEMENTARYOSAKIS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT47214.867%59%
Voyager ElementaryAlexandria Public School District44613.157%45%
OSAKIS SECONDARYOSAKIS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT41516.042%37%
Woodland Elementary SchoolAlexandria Public School District41011.459%52%
Evansville ElementaryBRANDON-EVANSVILLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS16320.468%55%
Brandon-Evansville High SchoolBRANDON-EVANSVILLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS15815.8
Kalon Prep Academy · charterKalon Prep Academy14112.8
WEST CENTRAL AREA S. EL.WEST CENTRAL AREA13811.559%59%
Miltona ElementaryAlexandria Public School District12615.869%56%

30.8% 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 $927 takes 14% 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
14.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.1×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$927
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$321,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.07Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate76.5%Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±5222,332Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$60$927Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$10,241$321,400Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income14.1%Bottom 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate21.6%Top 23%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
59/ 100
Top 32% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 2 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 39,933 in 2024.

At 8.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
316
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
8.0
Top 13% nationally
Year over year
−22%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
43.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202440k39k
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
2022202320242025335160
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+70%).

Weather & climate

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

Normal annual precipitation is 24.1 inches.

-10°10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station ALEXANDRIA MUNI AP, 5.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation24.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low2°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high80°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing60°F1991-2020 Normals

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.

Physical risk

97 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Winter weatherModerate
Strong windModerate
TornadoElevated
LightningModerate
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, landslide, wildfire, inland flooding, hail, ice storm, drought, 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.

Douglas 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 10.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 8.2 per 100,000 residents in Douglas County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
8.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
15.4
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 Douglas 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 Douglas County rather than Douglas 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 94 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Hector IntlFAR94 mi9,001 ft
Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-ChamberlainMSP131 mi11,006 ft
Duluth IntlDLH168 mi10,591 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
68
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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

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 Douglas County, MN