Hutchinson, Minnesota

Area Profile

14,680 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Hutchinson, in McLeod County.

68out of 100
Area Score
Top 26% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3107th of 3,904 published cities42
SchoolsTop 32% of 2,668 published cities66
GrowthTop 9% of 2,973 published cities76
Housing affordabilityTop 12% of 4,223 published cities98
Climate4150th of 4,223 published cities52
Physical resilienceTop 14% of 4,182 published cities88
Access3924th of 4,226 published cities61
Economic stability2223rd of 4,226 published cities59
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 4.7% and the Opportunity signal places Hutchinson in the bottom 20%.

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 236 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 1080% on the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Hutchinson in the top 14% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
14,680
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$72,836
Top 42% nationally
Density
1,731/sq mi
8.5 sq mi of land
Median age
41.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
McLeod County
Minnesota
Metro area
Hutchinson, MN
Nearest major airport
MSP
57 mi · Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-Chamberlain
Median home value
$229,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.7% is lower than 36% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.8% over the past year, to 19,260 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$6,151$72,836Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$5,576$44,845Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate12.4%Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute20.7 minBottom 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher26.1%Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment19,260Bottom 24%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.8%Bottom 36%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.8%Bottom 23%June 2026
Labor force20,220Bottom 24%June 2026
Labor force participation64.7%Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.3%Top 40%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.7%Top 36%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202473k59k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $72,836 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 McLeod County, MN, which contains this city.

54% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 55% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
12
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
53.9%
Top 32% in Minnesota
Reading proficiency
54.6%
Top 39% in Minnesota
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
HUTCHINSON SENIOR HIGHHUTCHINSON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT86317.3
HUTCHINSON MIDDLEHUTCHINSON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT53515.357%62%
HUTCHINSON WEST ELEMENTARYHUTCHINSON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT43112.3
Hutchinson Tiger ElementaryHUTCHINSON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT37513.9
HUTCHINSON PARK ELEMENTARYHUTCHINSON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT37113.764%55%
NEW DISCOVERIES MONTESSORI ACADEMY · charterNEW DISCOVERIES MONTESSORI ACADEMY21910.930%36%
New Century Academy · charterNew Century Academy958.6
HUTCHINSON MIDDLE SCHOOL A.L.C.HUTCHINSON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT73
CROW RIVER AREA LEARNING CENTERHUTCHINSON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT32
HUTCHINSON TRANSITION ASSISTANCE PGHUTCHINSON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT3030.0
CORNERSTONEHUTCHINSON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT10
HUTCHINSON NIGHT ALT LEARNING CTRHUTCHINSON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT2

35.3% 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 $940 takes 15% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.2 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
15.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$940
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$229,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.15Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate68.6%Bottom 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2286,778Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$49$940Bottom 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$11,470$229,600Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income15.5%Bottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.3%Bottom 25%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
76/ 100
Top 9% 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 14,708 in 2024.

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

88% 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 16.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
236
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
16.1
Top 6% nationally
Year over year
+1080%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
87.7%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202415k15k
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
20202021202220232024202510421
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+117%).

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 5°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 29.8 inches.

-10°10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station HUTCHINSON 1 N, 1.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation29.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low5°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high83°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 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

88 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Overall hazard risk is lower than 76% of measured US cities.

Strong windModerate
HailModerate
TornadoElevated
Heat waveModerate

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

McLeod County records 2.1 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 7.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 8.8 per 100,000 residents in McLeod County.

Homicide
2.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
7.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
8.8
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 McLeod 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 Hutchinson rather than Hutchinson 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 57 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-ChamberlainMSP57 mi11,006 ft
Rochester IntlRST115 mi9,034 ft
Chippewa Valley RgnlEAU142 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
68
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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 Hutchinson

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
5535018,610$79,12368