Scott County, MN

County Profile

154,557 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Scott 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.

67out of 100
Area Score
Top 30% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 46% of 1,255 counties57
SchoolsTop 26% of 973 counties70
GrowthTop 49% of 1,226 counties51
Housing affordabilityTop 47% of 1,255 counties94
Climate1153rd of 1,254 counties54
Physical resilienceTop 41% of 1,255 counties68
AccessTop 37% of 1,255 counties87
Economic stabilityTop 1% of 1,255 counties99
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.2% and median household income $119,314, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

In the public schools here, 52% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 16.4 students for every teacher.

Residential permitting has slowed: 735 units authorized over the past twelve months, 21% below the prior year.

At a glance

Population
154,557
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$119,314
Top 2% nationally
Density
434/sq mi
356.1 sq mi of land
Median age
37.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Scott County
Minnesota
Metro area
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI
Nearest major airport
MSP
22 mi · Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-Chamberlain
Median home value
$419,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.2% is lower than 50% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 1.8% over the past year, to 87,010 employed residents.

44% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 94% of measured US locations.

Household income is higher than at least 98% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,959$119,314Top 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,284$54,014Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate4.6%Bottom 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute26.4 minTop 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher44.1%Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment87,010Top 30%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.6%Bottom 26%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.8%Bottom 24%June 2026
Labor force90,784Top 30%June 2026
Labor force participation74.8%Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.6%Top 20%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.2%Top 50%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.21.6
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.2% 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
2021202220232024120k109k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $119,314 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 — Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides93,560$38,860
Retail Salespersons51,180$36,670
General and Operations Managers44,890$103,570
Registered Nurses43,600$103,040
Customer Service Representatives38,630$49,480
Fast Food and Counter Workers37,920$33,040

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.

52% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 55% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 16.4 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
58
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
51.8%
Top 19% in Minnesota
Reading proficiency
55.3%
Top 19% in Minnesota
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Prior Lake High SchoolPrior Lake-Savage Area Schools2,85620.7
Shakopee High SchoolShakopee Public School District2,82318.1
Prior Lake-Savage Middle SchoolPrior Lake-Savage Area Schools2,02519.537%47%
NEW PRAGUE SENIOR HIGHNEW PRAGUE AREA SCHOOLS1,31523.5
NEW PRAGUE MIDDLE SCHOOLNEW PRAGUE AREA SCHOOLS92623.157%57%
Shakopee West Middle SchoolShakopee Public School District89915.832%52%
Shakopee East Middle SchoolShakopee Public School District82816.937%52%
JORDAN ELEMENTARYJORDAN PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT70114.360%44%
Jackson ElementaryShakopee Public School District68314.867%57%
ASPEN ACADEMY · charterASPEN ACADEMY64114.958%66%
Eagle Creek Elementary SchoolShakopee Public School District62516.055%60%
Jordan High SchoolJORDAN PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT61918.2

28.0% 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 $1,568 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.5 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
15.8%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,568
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$419,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.52Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate83.8%Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±5356,671Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$61$1,568Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$8,137$419,400Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income15.8%Bottom 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.0%Bottom 1%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
51/ 100
Top 49% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, measured from 2020 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 4% since 2020, reaching 157,206 in 2024.

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

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 13% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 4.8 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
735
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.8
Top 32% nationally
Year over year
−21%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
13.3%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024157k151k
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
2020202120222023202420251k612
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+44%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 84°F and January a low of 8°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 30.6 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 42, in the Good band, and one day a year passes 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station MPLS FLYING CLOUD AP, 12.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index60.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation30.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low8°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high84°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index42.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing58°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
42
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
60
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

68 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Strong windHigh
TornadoElevated
HailElevated
Heat waveElevated

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, inland flooding, winter weather, landslide, ice storm, wildfire, lightning, 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.

Scott County records 2.0 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 6.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 7.7 per 100,000 residents in Scott County.

Homicide
2.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
6.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
7.7
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
9.6
per 100,000 residents

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 Scott 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 Scott County rather than Scott 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

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 22 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-ChamberlainMSP22 mi11,006 ft
Rochester IntlRST72 mi9,034 ft
Chippewa Valley RgnlEAU102 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
67
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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.