Grand Rapids, Minnesota

Area Profile

11,207 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Grand Rapids, in Itasca County.

59out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 43% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3614th of 3,904 published cities31
Schools1509th of 2,668 published cities47
GrowthTop 4% of 2,973 published cities81
Housing affordabilityTop 39% of 4,223 published cities86
Climate4211th of 4,223 published cities45
Physical resilienceTop 21% of 4,182 published cities82
Access4031st of 4,226 published cities53
Economic stability3553rd of 4,226 published cities39
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 6.2% and the Opportunity signal places Grand Rapids in the bottom 7%.

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 184 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 2200% on the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Grand Rapids in the top 21% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
11,207
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$61,029
Bottom 41% nationally
Density
501/sq mi
22.4 sq mi of land
Median age
44.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Itasca County
Minnesota
Metro area
Grand Rapids, MN
Nearest major airport
DLH
69 mi · Duluth Intl
Median home value
$213,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 6.2% is lower than 6% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 2.1% over the past year, to 19,936 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$8,215$61,029Bottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,190$33,189Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate15.5%Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute16.7 minBottom 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher28.8%Top 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment19,936Bottom 25%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.1%Top 47%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.1%Bottom 16%June 2026
Labor force21,250Bottom 26%June 2026
Labor force participation55.4%Bottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.2%Top 43%June 2026
Unemployment rate6.2%Top 6%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202461k51k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $61,029 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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Itasca County, MN, which contains this city.

48% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 53% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 17.8 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
9
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
17.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
47.8%
Top 49% in Minnesota
Reading proficiency
52.7%
Top 49% in Minnesota
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
GRAND RAPIDS SENIOR HIGHGRAND RAPIDS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT1,09119.8
ROBERT J. ELKINGTON MIDDLE SCHOOLGRAND RAPIDS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT76417.442%52%
East Rapids ElementaryGRAND RAPIDS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT63916.857%58%
West Rapids ElementaryGRAND RAPIDS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT61217.549%52%
GRAND RAPIDS AREA LEARNING CENTERGRAND RAPIDS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT12932.3
GRAND RAPIDS EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTERGRAND RAPIDS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT6310.5
MIDDLE AREA LEARNING CENTERGRAND RAPIDS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT545%5%
ITASKIN EDUCATION CENTERGRAND RAPIDS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT396.5
Infinity: Minnesota Digital AcademyInfinity: Minnesota Digital Academy0

42.4% 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 $1,090 takes 21% 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
21.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,090
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$213,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.50Top 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate62.4%Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2785,148Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$73$1,090Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$14,438$213,800Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.4%Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate9.1%Bottom 47%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
81/ 100
Top 4% of 2,973 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 1% since 2020, reaching 11,244 in 2024.

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

93% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 16.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
184
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
16.4
Top 5% nationally
Year over year
+2200%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
92.9%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202411k11k
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
2020202120222023202420251452.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+15%).

Weather & climate

4 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 80°F and January a low of -1°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 29.4 inches, including 59.6 inches of snow.

-10°10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station GRAND RPDS FOREST LAB, 1.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation29.4"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall59.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low-1°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high80°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months41991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing59°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 inland flooding.

Inland floodingElevated

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

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.

Itasca 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 14.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 10.1 per 100,000 residents in Itasca County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
14.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
10.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
20.2
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 Itasca 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 Grand Rapids rather than Grand Rapids 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

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 69 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Duluth IntlDLH69 mi10,591 ft
Hector IntlFAR156 mi9,001 ft
Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-ChamberlainMSP164 mi11,006 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.

ZIP codes in Grand Rapids

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
5574420,295$70,64460