Moorhead, Minnesota

Area Profile

45,036 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Moorhead, in Clay County.

49out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 13% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity2939th of 3,904 published cities44
Schools2001st of 2,668 published cities32
Growth2273rd of 2,973 published cities34
Housing affordabilityTop 19% of 4,223 published cities95
Climate4191st of 4,223 published cities49
Physical resilience3149th of 4,182 published cities31
Access2312th of 4,226 published cities90
Economic stabilityTop 46% of 4,226 published cities62
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 4.4% and the Opportunity signal places Moorhead in the bottom 25%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 87 units authorized over the past twelve months, 67% below the prior year.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by inland flooding, cold wave and tornado.

At a glance

Population
45,036
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$72,761
Top 42% nationally
Density
2,021/sq mi
22.3 sq mi of land
Median age
31.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Clay County
Minnesota
Metro area
Fargo, ND-MN
Nearest major airport
FAR
5 mi · Hector Intl
Median home value
$249,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.4% is lower than 48% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 2.6% over the past year, to 23,318 employed residents.

42% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 83% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,984$72,761Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,595$37,546Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate16.1%Top 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute19.1 minBottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher41.6%Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment23,318Bottom 30%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.7%Bottom 23%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.6%Bottom 13%June 2026
Labor force24,397Bottom 30%June 2026
Labor force participation70.9%Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$64,380Bottom 29%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$51,050Bottom 48%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.9%Top 6%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.4%Top 48%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.41.5
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.4% 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
202120222023202473k63k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $72,761 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 — Fargo, ND-MN
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Registered Nurses4,790$82,120
Retail Salespersons4,160$35,860
Fast Food and Counter Workers4,090$30,950
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand3,810$45,690
General and Operations Managers3,590$96,410
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers3,570$58,900

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.

42% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 45% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.6 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
16
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
42.1%
Bottom 29% in Minnesota
Reading proficiency
45.4%
Bottom 26% in Minnesota
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
HORIZON MIDDLE SCHOOLMoorhead Area Public Schools2,15817.035%47%
MOORHEAD HIGH SCHOOLMoorhead Area Public Schools2,12219.1
S.G. Reinertsen ElementaryMoorhead Area Public Schools71913.852%52%
Dorothy Dodds Elementary SchoolMoorhead Area Public Schools62513.344%37%
ELLEN HOPKINS ELEMENTARYMoorhead Area Public Schools61614.350%43%
Robert Asp ElementaryMoorhead Area Public Schools58013.546%43%
Probstfield ElementaryMoorhead Area Public Schools29041.4
PROBSTFIELD CENTER FOR EDUCATIONMoorhead Area Public Schools2537.4
Moorhead ALCMoorhead Area Public Schools1389.9
West Central Academy-SMoorhead Area Public Schools348.5
West Central Academy-NMoorhead Area Public Schools16
Moorhead ALC - BarnesvilleMoorhead Area Public Schools0

47.1% 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 $1,033 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.4 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
17.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,033
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$249,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.42Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate58.1%Bottom 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±22919,184Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$50$1,033Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$7,704$249,000Top 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.0%Bottom 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.5%Bottom 22%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
34/ 100
Ranks 2273 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 2 consecutive years, 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 3% since 2020, reaching 45,726 in 2024.

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

At 1.9 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
87
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.9
Bottom 45% nationally
Year over year
−67%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202446k45k
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
202020212022202320242025335139
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−40%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 82°F and January a low of 0°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 24.0 inches, including 51.4 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 FARGO HECTOR INTL AP, 5.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation24.0"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall51.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low0°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high82°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing62°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

31 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Winter weatherModerate
Cold waveElevated
Inland floodingHigh
HailModerate
Strong windElevated
TornadoHigh

Low or minimal exposure: wildfire, ice storm, drought, landslide, heat wave, lightning, 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.

Clay County records 3.9 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 13.4 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 15.1 per 100,000 residents in Clay County.

Homicide
3.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
13.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
15.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
15.1
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 Clay 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 Moorhead rather than Moorhead 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 5 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Hector IntlFAR5 mi9,001 ft
Duluth IntlDLH215 mi10,591 ft
Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-ChamberlainMSP218 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
49
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Other cities in Fargo, ND-MN

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
FargoCass County131,62768vs Moorhead
West FargoCass County40,09469vs Moorhead

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)
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 Moorhead

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
5656044,405$75,40650