The 10 Best Small Towns In Minnesota For 2024

You’ve seen these lists before. Best places to live in Minnesota. Best sururbs in Minnesota. Best counties in Minnesota.

Etc., etc., etc.

But they all focus on major cities and towns in the North Star State, and no one pays attention to the little guy.

Well, that’s all about to change as we put together a list of the superb small towns in Minnesota based on numbers–not opinions or hearsay.

We’ll dive right into our methodology in the next section, but first, we thought you might want to know which places in Minnesota ranked the best based on Saturday Night Science.

Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table

What’s the best small town in Minnesota? Wayzata is the best small town in Minnesota based on the most recent Census data. If you live in one of these small towns like Wayzata, chances are, you’re not surprised. After all, you know how great you have it.

But for the rest of you–keep reading, and we’ll get to just why these small towns made our list.

For more reading on the North Star State check out:

• Best Places To Live In Minnesota
• Cheapest Places To Live In Minnesota
• Most Dangerous Cities In Minnesota

Next 10 Cities

Methodology: How We Determined The Coolest Towns In Minnesota

We threw a lot of criteria at this report to get the best, most complete results of the best small towns in Minnesota possible.

Using the most recent data from the Census’s 2018-2022 American Community Survey, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Saturday Night Science, this is the criteria we used:

• Population Density (Higher is better)
• Lowest Unemployment Rates
• Housing costs (Higher is better. More demand.)
• Adjusted Median Income (Higher is better)
• Highly Educated Adults (Higher is better)
• Insurance Rates (Higher is better)
• Commute Times (Lower is better)

We looked at places with populations lower than 5,000 people and greater than 1,000, of which there were many – 212 to be exact.

We then ranked each place in each category with scores from 1 to 212, averaged them out, and the lowest scores went to our Best Small Towns in Minnesota. Top of that list — Wayzata.

This is our tenth time ranking the best small places to live in Minnesota.

Summary: Science Can Tackle Any Issue, Even Small Ones

We said it once, and we’ll say it again — this list: it’s just science. We did the research, crunched the numbers, and it turns out these 15 small towns in Minnesota are the best in which to live.

And who can argue with that?

The best small towns in Minnesota are Wayzata, Deephaven, Birchwood Village, Oronoco, Centerville, Independence, Elko New Market, Madison Lake, Chatfield, and Hanover.

If you’re curious, here are the worst small towns in Minnesota:

1. Little Rock
2. Redby
3. Keewatin

For more Minnesota reading, check out:

• Best Places To Raise A Family In Minnesota
• Safest Places In Minnesota
• Worst Places To Live In Minnesota

Best Small Towns In Minnesota