Fridley, Minnesota

Area Profile

30,241 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Fridley, in Anoka County.

51out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 16% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3299th of 3,904 published cities39
Schools2324th of 2,668 published cities22
Growth2330th of 2,973 published cities33
Housing affordabilityTop 44% of 4,223 published cities84
Climate4077th of 4,223 published cities54
Physical resilience2120th of 4,182 published cities57
AccessTop 41% of 4,226 published cities94
Economic stabilityTop 44% of 4,226 published cities63
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.0% and the Opportunity signal places Fridley in the bottom 16%.

In the public schools here, 31% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 14.8 students for every teacher.

A major airport is 14 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
30,241
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$77,680
Top 36% nationally
Density
2,975/sq mi
10.2 sq mi of land
Median age
34.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Anoka County
Minnesota
Metro area
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI
Nearest major airport
MSP
14 mi · Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-Chamberlain
Median home value
$302,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.0% is lower than 25% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 2.0% over the past year, to 15,693 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,483$77,680Top 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,077$38,100Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.9%Top 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.5 minBottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher30.0%Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment15,693Bottom 16%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.2%Bottom 29%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.0%Bottom 18%June 2026
Labor force16,523Bottom 16%June 2026
Labor force participation69.8%Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$74,580Top 30%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$59,320Top 23%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.7%Top 19%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.0%Top 25%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.52.4
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 5.0% 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 $77,680 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.

31% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 33% 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
21
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
31.3%
Bottom 14% in Minnesota
Reading proficiency
32.9%
Bottom 8% in Minnesota
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
SPRING LAKE PARK SENIOR HIGHSPRING LAKE PARK PUBLIC SCHOOLS1,90919.5
Fridley Senior HighFridley Public School District79613.7
Fridley MiddleFridley Public School District69411.825%45%
Woodcrest El. Spanish ImmersionSPRING LAKE PARK PUBLIC SCHOOLS55815.953%46%
Park Terrace ElementarySPRING LAKE PARK PUBLIC SCHOOLS53213.339%28%
Stevenson ElementaryFridley Public School District45911.825%20%
North Park School for InnovationColumbia Heights Public School Dist43314.08%18%
Hayes ElementaryFridley Public School District4329.835%32%
Metro Heights AcademyNortheast Metro 91619819.8
Voluntary Prekindergarten SchoolFridley Public School District13869.0
EARLY EDUCATIONSPRING LAKE PARK PUBLIC SCHOOLS12315.4
Fridley Moore Lk Area Learning CtrFridley Public School District12130.3

58.1% 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 $1,326 takes 20% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.9 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
20.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,326
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$302,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.90Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate63.0%Bottom 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±38112,746Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$55$1,326Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$11,404$302,900Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.5%Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.4%Bottom 35%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
33/ 100
Ranks 2330 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, 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 30,679 in 2024.

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

At 0.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
1
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.0
Bottom 6% nationally
Year over year
0%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202431k30k
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
2020202120222023202420253810.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−100%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 83°F and January a low of 7°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 30.7 inches.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station MPLS CRYSTAL AP, 4.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation30.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low7°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high83°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing57°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

57 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Strong windElevated
HailElevated
Inland floodingElevated

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

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.

Crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source 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. Reported crime is also easy to misread: agency participation varies year to year, and a city that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate.
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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 14 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-ChamberlainMSP14 mi11,006 ft
Chippewa Valley RgnlEAU88 mi8,101 ft
Rochester IntlRST89 mi9,034 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
51
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Other cities in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
MinneapolisHennepin County427,24659vs Fridley
St. PaulRamsey County307,28458vs Fridley
BloomingtonHennepin County88,66558vs Fridley
Brooklyn ParkHennepin County83,87658vs Fridley
PlymouthHennepin County79,22073vs Fridley
WoodburyWashington County78,30570vs Fridley
LakevilleDakota County74,35475vs Fridley
BlaineAnoka County72,48860vs Fridley
Maple GroveHennepin County71,17369vs Fridley
EaganDakota County68,00068vs Fridley
BurnsvilleDakota County64,46359vs Fridley
Coon RapidsAnoka County63,46855vs Fridley

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

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
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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)
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.

ZIP codes in Fridley

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
5543233,672$79,52051