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.
How this area ranks
Data updated · 14 sourcesUnemployment is 4.9% and median household income $84,171, putting employment conditions in the middle range of counties measured.
In the public schools here, 51% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 15.2 students for every teacher.
88 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 4% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.
These sentences are written by fixed rules from the measurements below — a statement appears because a number crossed a stated threshold, and the values behind it are stored with it. No figure anywhere on this site is invented, estimated or inferred to fill a gap. How this works.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 4.9% — higher than in all but 24% of the 1,467 measured US counties.
Employment fell 1.7% over the past year, to 25,337 employed residents.
28% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 71% of measured US counties.
Median household income of $84,171 is higher than in 86% of measured US counties.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Income of new arrivalsfiling years 2022–2023 | $65,486 | 65th percentileof 1,417 | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Income of those who leftfiling years 2022–2023 | $63,905 | 65th percentileof 1,417 | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Median household income ±$3,0262024 ACS 5-Year | $84,171 | Top 14%of 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$1,3172024 ACS 5-Year | $43,250 | Top 17%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per-capita personal income2023 | $67,840 | Top 20%of 1,389 | 2023 |
| Poverty rate ±1%2024 ACS 5-Year | 9.2% | Top 22%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute ±1.0 min2024 ACS 5-Year | 25.2 min | Top 46%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 27.9% | Top 29%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Drove alone to work ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 78.4% | 56th percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| EmploymentJuly 2026 | 25,337 | Bottom 40%of 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years)July 2026 | +1.1% | Top 36%of 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year)July 2026 | −1.7% | Bottom 28%of 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Labor forceJuly 2026 | 26,638 | 40th percentileof 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Labor force participation ±1%2024 ACS 5-Year | 84.3% | Top 9%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Public transit to work ±0.4%2024 ACS 5-Year | 0.7% | 79th percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year)July 2026 | +1.0% | Bottom 4%of 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Unemployment rateJuly 2026 | 4.9% | Bottom 24%of 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Worked from home ±1%2024 ACS 5-Year | 10.7% | 68th percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
Unemployment rate
Median household income, successive ACS releases
51% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 60% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.
There are 15.2 students for every full-time teacher across 20 public schools, more than in most measured places.
| School | District | Students | Per teacher | Math | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red Wing Senior High | Red Wing Public School District | 762 | 16.9 | 44% | 57% |
| Cannon Falls Secondary | CANNON FALLS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT | 536 | 15.3 | 58% | 62% |
| Cannon Falls Elementary | CANNON FALLS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT | 519 | 13.3 | 63% | 64% |
| Twin Bluff School | Red Wing Public School District | 502 | 16.2 | 49% | 60% |
| Burnside Elementary | Red Wing Public School District | 493 | 14.1 | 53% | 45% |
| Pine Island High School | Pine Island Public School District | 487 | 17.4 | 52% | 72% |
| Pine Island Middle | Pine Island Public School District | 464 | 15.5 | 62% | 68% |
| Goodhue Elementary | GOODHUE PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT | 416 | 13.0 | 62% | 65% |
| Zumbrota-Mazeppa Senior High | Zumbrota-Mazeppa School District | 401 | 16.7 | 37% | 77% |
| Goodhue Secondary | GOODHUE PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT | 362 | 21.3 | 37% | 47% |
| Zumbrota-Mazeppa Primary School | Zumbrota-Mazeppa School District | 298 | 14.2 | — | — |
| Sunnyside Elementary | Red Wing Public School District | 294 | 12.3 | — | — |
27.3% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with, not how the schools perform, so it is shown and not scored.
Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data, placed by ZIP code — which schools are in this place, not which one a particular address is zoned for. A dash in a proficiency column is a gap in the federal file, not a bad result. Proficiency is measured against Minnesota’s own standard, so it is ranked within state. How to read school figures.
Housing & affordability
How it’s calculated — housing affordability →The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s house price index for the non-metropolitan parts of Minnesota is up 43% over five years, and up 3.8% over the last year. It follows repeat sales of the same homes, so it measures price change rather than which homes happened to sell.
Homeowners here who pay a tax bill pay a median of $2,998 a year in real estate taxes, about 1.05% of the median home value.
HUD’s Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom, set near the 40th percentile of recent new leases, is $1,095, some 13% above the $966 tenants already here pay.
At HUD’s Fair Market Rent of $1,095 a month for a two-bedroom, keeping rent to 30% of income takes a household income of about $43,800 a year, about 52% of the median household income here of $84,171.
The typical renter household here spends 30% of its income on rent, at the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened. Median gross rent runs $966 a month.
A median home at $285,100 costs 2.9 times the median income of its owner-occupied households, $97,047, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.
The figures above are measured against Goodhue County’s median household income of $84,171, which describes the place rather than you. Enter your own and the ratio is recomputed against it. It stays in this browser.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home price change (1 year)the non-metropolitan parts of Minnesota’s figure2026 Q2 | +3.8% | 57th percentileof 1,431 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price change (5 years)the non-metropolitan parts of Minnesota’s figure2026 Q2 | +42.5% | 37th percentileof 1,431 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price change (10 years)the non-metropolitan parts of Minnesota’s figure2026 Q2 | +88.5% | 39th percentileof 1,431 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price to income ±0.12024 ACS 5-Year | 2.9 | Bottom 31%of 3,217 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 78.8% | 75th percentileof 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±692024 ACS 5-Year | 21,167 | 66th percentileof 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Market rent, one bedroomFY2026 | $901 | Top 43%of 1,423 | FY2026 |
| Market rent, three bedroomFY2026 | $1,523 | Top 48%of 1,423 | FY2026 |
| Market rent, two bedroomFY2026 | $1,095 | Top 40%of 1,423 | FY2026 |
| Median gross rent ±$512024 ACS 5-Year | $966 | Bottom 35%of 3,215 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$7,0692024 ACS 5-Year | $285,100 | 78th percentileof 3,219 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median property taxes ±$942024 ACS 5-Year | $2,998 | 85th percentileof 3,172 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Owner household income ±$4,0772024 ACS 5-Year | $97,047 | Top 16%of 3,218 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Property tax rate ±0.04%2024 ACS 5-Year | 1.05% | 69th percentileof 3,126 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 29.9% | Bottom 29%of 3,216 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Seasonal and second homes ±1072024 ACS 5-Year | 518 | 60th percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Second homes2024 ACS 5-Year | 2.4% | 47th percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate2024 ACS 5-Year | 4.4% | 10th percentileof 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacant housing units ±2802024 ACS 5-Year | 1,440 | 43rd percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
These measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with. They compare housing cost with local earnings only: transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not in them. How to read affordability, the two rent figures.
Growth & development
How it’s calculated — growth →Development Momentum
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: of 88 units permitted over the past twelve months, none were in buildings of five or more homes.
Federal tax returns show that people moving in from elsewhere in the US and people moving out roughly balanced across Goodhue County in the most recent year. Households that moved in reported an average income of $65,486, close to the $63,905 of households that moved out.
At 1.8 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US counties.
Population, annual estimates
People moving in and out
Where newcomers came from
- Olmsted County, MN 308 people · 15% of arrivals
- Dakota County, MN 256 people · 13% of arrivals
- Wabasha County, MN 164 people · 8.2% of arrivals
- Hennepin County, MN 125 people · 6.3% of arrivals
- Rice County, MN 102 people · 5.1% of arrivals
Where people who left went
- Dakota County, MN 226 people · 12% of departures
- Olmsted County, MN 211 people · 11% of departures
- Wabasha County, MN 131 people · 6.8% of departures
- Hennepin County, MN 98 people · 5.1% of departures
- Rice County, MN 89 people · 4.6% of departures
Based on the address on federal tax returns, compared with the same filers a year earlier. It counts people who file, and sees a move only when the address on a return changes. Domestic moves only: people arriving from abroad are left out. IRS Statistics of Income, filing years 2022–2023.
Housing units permitted per year
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.
Precipitation
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| 90th percentile air quality index2024 calendar year | 48 | 2024 calendar year |
| Annual precipitation1991-2020 Normals | 35.2" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Annual snowfall1991-2020 Normals | 43.5" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low1991-2020 Normals | 4°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high1991-2020 Normals | 81°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months1991-2020 Normals | 5 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Days above AQI 1002024 calendar year | 0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Median air quality index2024 calendar year | 38 | 2024 calendar year |
| Seasonal temperature swing1991-2020 Normals | 57°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
Air quality
Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. Air quality is measured by EPA monitors and published by county only where a monitor sits; a county without one shows nothing rather than an estimate, and a county reading is still the county’s. How to read climate and air quality.
Physical risk
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, tornado and strong wind, with inland flooding alone responsible for 53% of it.
Low or minimal exposure: landslide, drought, winter weather, cold wave, ice storm, wildfire, earthquake, avalanche, coastal flooding, tsunami, volcanic activity, hurricane.
Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). These are FEMA’s own figures for this county rather than a value derived from surrounding geographies. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.
These are deaths, not offenses — they say 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 about 8.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, since the figure counts suicides and accidents as well as homicides.
Drug overdose deaths run at about 9.4 per 100,000 residents in Goodhue County.
Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides, so the firearm figure and the homicide figure above it count some of the same deaths twice over. They overlap and should not be added together.
Death rates are crude rates — deaths divided by population, not adjusted for age — except where a count was too small for the CDC to publish and it modeled the rate, which the card marks. They come from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC by county and not below it. So they describe Goodhue County as a whole. They are shown and not scored. How to read death rates.
What this profile does not cover
Each of these is absent for a reason, not by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them; the weighting is on the methodology page.
- Reported crime
- Offenses reported to police are published by department rather than by town, so AreaProfile shows a rate only on city profiles, and only where that city’s department submitted every month of a year. City profiles inside this area carry their own figure where their department reported a full year. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
- Cost of living
- Price parities are published for metropolitan areas, and this place lies outside one.
- Taxes
- Income and sales taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Property taxes are shown in the housing section but are not part of the score. Cost of living is published where the Bureau of Economic Analysis measures it, though not for this place. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
- Anything about a specific address
- Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house.
Access
4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest Rochester Intl at 36 miles.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broadband access ±1%2024 ACS 5-Year | 91.3% | Top 17%of 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Distance to major airportNASR current cycle | 36 mi | Bottom 49%of 1,463 | NASR current cycle |
| Major airports within 100 milesNASR current cycle | 4 | Top 43%of 1,463 | NASR current cycle |
| No internet access ±1%2024 ACS 5-Year | 6.7% | Top 22%of 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rochester Intl | RST | 36 mi | 9,034 ft |
| Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-Chamberlain | MSP | 41 mi | 11,006 ft |
| Chippewa Valley Rgnl | EAU | 68 mi | 8,101 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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Similar places
Matched on AreaProfile signals, not geographyData & methodology
| Used for | Source | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle |
| Physical risk | Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index | National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0) |
| Demographics, Income | Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income Division U.S. Population Migration Data (county to county) | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Income | U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional price parities and county personal income | 2023 |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | July 2026 |
| Access, Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Development | U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey | 12 months ending July 2026 |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate |
| Safety | U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics Provisional county-level mortality by intent | March 2025 to February 2026; May 2025 to April 2026 |
| Schools | U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments | 2018-19 school year; 2024-25 school year |
| Housing | U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research Fair Market Rents | FY2026 |
| Climate | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System Daily Air Quality Index by county | 2024 calendar year |
| Housing | U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index (traditional, all-transactions) | 2026 Q2 |
| Current conditions | NOAA National Weather Service National Weather Service current conditions | Live observation, read when the page opens |
Profile recalculated October 8, 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 every source with how often each updates.
Cities in Goodhue County, MN
ZIP areas
Only ZIP areas whose income or home value differ from their city’s by at least ten percent get a profile of their own, so this is a selection rather than every ZIP code in the county.