Goodhue County, MN

County Profile

47,943 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Goodhue 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.

57out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 32% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity723rd of 1,255 counties measured52
Schools707th of 973 counties measured33
Growth857th of 1,226 counties measured40
Housing affordabilityTop 41% of 1,255 counties measured96
Climate1199th of 1,254 counties measured52
Physical resilience677th of 1,255 counties measured58
AccessTop 50% of 1,255 counties measured82
Economic stabilityTop 20% of 1,255 counties measured82
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.8% and median household income $84,171, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

In the public schools here, 43% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 14.8 students for every teacher.

88 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 4% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

At a glance

Population
47,943
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$84,171
Top 14% nationally
Density
63/sq mi
756.7 sq mi of land
Median age
42.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Goodhue County
Minnesota
Metro area
Red Wing, MN
Nearest major airport
RST
36 mi · Rochester Intl
Median home value
$285,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.8% is lower than 28% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 1.3% over the past year, to 25,208 employed residents.

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

Household income is higher than at least 86% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$3,026$84,171Top 14%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,317$43,250Top 17%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate9.3%Bottom 20%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute25.2 minBottom 46%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher27.9%Top 29%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment25,208Bottom 32%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.1%Top 41%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.3%Bottom 35%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force26,488Bottom 33%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation64.5%Top 20%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.8%Top 14%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate4.8%Top 28%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.22.0
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.8% 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
202120222023202484k71k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $84,171 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.

43% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 48% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.8 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
30
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
42.8%
Bottom 25% in Minnesota
Reading proficiency
48.0%
Bottom 31% in Minnesota
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Red Wing Senior HighRed Wing Public School District76216.927%37%
Cannon Falls SecondaryCANNON FALLS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT53615.337%42%
CANNON FALLS ELEMENTARYCANNON FALLS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT51913.354%63%
Twin Bluff SchoolRed Wing Public School District50216.245%42%
Burnside ElementaryRed Wing Public School District49314.149%46%
Pine Island High SchoolPine Island Public School District48717.4
PINE ISLAND MIDDLEPine Island Public School District46415.555%65%
GOODHUE ELEMENTARYGOODHUE PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT41613.055%64%
Zumbrota-Mazeppa Senior HighZumbrota-Mazeppa School District40116.7
GOODHUE SECONDARYGOODHUE PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT36221.335%35%
Zumbrota-Mazeppa Primary SchoolZumbrota-Mazeppa School District29814.2
Sunnyside ElementaryRed Wing Public School District29412.333%45%

27.3% 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 $966 takes 14% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.4 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
13.8%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$966
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$285,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.39Top 34%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate78.8%Top 25%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±6921,167Top 34%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$51$966Top 35%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$7,069$285,100Top 22%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income13.8%Bottom 14%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.8%Bottom 13%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
40/ 100
Ranks 857 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 47,982 in 2024.

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

At 1.8 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
88
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.8
Bottom 32% nationally
Year over year
+4%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202448k48k
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
202220232024202517051
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−51%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 81°F and January a low of 4°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 35.2 inches, including 43.5 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 38, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

-10°10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station ZUMBROTA, 7.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index48.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation35.2"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall43.5"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low4°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high81°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index38.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing57°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
38
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
48
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
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

58 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Strong windHigh
HailElevated
TornadoElevated
Inland floodingModerate
Heat waveModerate
LightningModerate

Low or minimal exposure: landslide, drought, winter weather, cold wave, ice storm, wildfire, 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.

Goodhue 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 7.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 9.2 per 100,000 residents in Goodhue County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
7.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
9.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
14.0
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 Goodhue 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 Goodhue County rather than Goodhue 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
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. 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. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 36 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Rochester IntlRST36 mi9,034 ft
Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-ChamberlainMSP41 mi11,006 ft
Chippewa Valley RgnlEAU68 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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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 Goodhue County, MN