Martin County, MN

County Profile

19,780 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Martin 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.

59out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 39% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 43% of 1,255 counties measured59
Schools632nd of 973 counties measured39
Growth1028th of 1,226 counties measured31
Housing affordabilityTop 22% of 1,255 counties measured100
Climate1172nd of 1,254 counties measured53
Physical resilienceTop 19% of 1,255 counties measured82
Access1223rd of 1,255 counties measured11
Economic stabilityTop 46% of 1,255 counties measured65
The quick read

Residential permitting has slowed: 15 units authorized over the past twelve months, 17% below the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Martin County in the top 19% for physical resilience.

The nearest major airport is 103 miles away, which is farther than most measured US locations.

At a glance

Population
19,780
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$59,507
Bottom 34% nationally
Density
28/sq mi
712.3 sq mi of land
Median age
43.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Martin County
Minnesota
Metro area
Fairmont, MN
Nearest major airport
RST
103 mi · Rochester Intl
Median home value
$163,500
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.7% is lower than 31% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 3.0% over the past year, to 10,468 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$3,542$59,507Bottom 34%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,107$37,332Top 37%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate13.1%Bottom 48%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute18.2 minBottom 9%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher23.8%Top 43%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment10,468Bottom 5%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)6.9%Top 3%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)3.0%Top 2%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force10,983Bottom 5%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation62.9%Top 28%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.4%Top 30%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate4.7%Top 31%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.81.7
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.7% 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
202120222023202463k57k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $59,507 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.

46% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 47% 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
15
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
46.2%
Bottom 44% in Minnesota
Reading proficiency
47.3%
Bottom 25% in Minnesota
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
FAIRMONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLFAIRMONT AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT1,00715.553%49%
FAIRMONT JR./SR. HIGH SCHOOLFAIRMONT AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT83920.047%52%
Trimont ElementaryMartin County West School District20014.345%55%
Martin County West Senior HighMartin County West School District18712.5
Granada Huntley East Chain Elem SchGranada Huntley East Chain13813.830%50%
TRUMAN ELEMENTARYTRUMAN PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT13610.540%21%
Sherburn ElementaryMartin County West School District13610.5
Martin County West Junior HighMartin County West School District10116.835%45%
Granada Huntley East Chain High SchGranada Huntley East Chain9812.3
TRUMAN SECONDARYTRUMAN PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT9310.310%10%
Granada Huntley East Chain Middle SGranada Huntley East Chain8181.050%50%
SOUTHERN PLAINS AREA LEARNING CNTR.SOUTHERN PLAINS EDUCATION COOP.4711.8

50.7% 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 $761 takes 15% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.7 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
15.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$761
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$163,500
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income2.75Bottom 40%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate68.9%Bottom 25%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±699,729Bottom 42%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$61$761Bottom 25%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$7,281$163,500Bottom 40%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income15.3%Bottom 30%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate9.1%Bottom 25%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
31/ 100
Ranks 1028 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, 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 fallen 2% since 2020, reaching 19,561 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before.

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

At 0.8 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
15
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.8
Bottom 11% nationally
Year over year
−17%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202420k20k
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
20222023202420252311
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−30%).

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 7°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 29.3 inches.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station ESTHERVILLE MUNI AP, 21.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.6"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation29.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low7°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high81°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing56°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

82 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Winter weatherModerate
HailElevated
Strong windHigh
Cold waveModerate
TornadoHigh
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: drought, ice storm, inland flooding, landslide, lightning, 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.

Martin 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 10.2 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 11.6 per 100,000 residents in Martin County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
11.6
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 Martin 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 Martin County rather than Martin 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

No airport meeting the AreaProfile major-airport definition lies within 100 miles; the nearest is 103 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Rochester IntlRST103 mi9,034 ft
Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-ChamberlainMSP106 mi11,006 ft
Joe Foss FldFSD110 mi9,000 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
59
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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 Martin County, MN