The Office of Broadband Development recently posted numbers on county access to broadband – based on information gathered in July 2016. They tracked access to speeds of 25 Mbps down and 3 up, which is the state goal for 2022 and 100 Mbps down and 20 up, which is the speed goal for 2026. (They also posted county maps.)

Here’s a breakdown of the best and worst lists:

Highest percentage of population with access to 25/3

1. Stevens – at 99.21 at 96.73
2. Lac qui Parle – at 99.36
3. Beltrami – at 99.36
4. Dodge – at 99.37
5. Freeborn – at 99.44
6. Clearwater – at 99.58
7. Ramsey – at 99.75
8. Steele – at 99.86
9. Red Lake – at 99.99
10. Hennepin – at 99.16

Lowest percentage of population with access to 25/3

1. Mille Lacs – at 47.86
2. Todd – at 46.01
3. Traverse – at 45.37
4. Redwood – at 41.51
5. Pine – at 40.12
6. Norman – at 37.67
7. Kanabec – at 34.04
8. Marshall – at 33.49
9. Aitkin – at 27.48
10. Yellow Medicine – at 20.42

Highest percentage of population with access to 100/20

1. Ramsey – at 99.39
2. Lac qui Parle – at 99.36
3. Waseca – at 98.75
4. Hennepin – at 98.57
5. Stevens – at 96.73
6. Beltrami – at 96.35
7. Anoka – at 96.10
8. Steele – at 95.64
9. Washington – at 94.97
10. Dodge – at 94.90

Lowest percentage of population with access to 100/20

1. Marshall – at 9.20
2. Kandiyohi – at 8.14
3. Douglas – at 7.68
4. Becker – at 6.58
5. Kittson – at 3.46
6. Todd – at 2.86
7. Otter Tail – at 1.75
8. Lyon – at 0
9. Roseau – at 0
10. Lake of the Woods – at 0

You can see there are a lot of counties that made one (best or worst) list but not the other.

I’m including the whole table of counties too. I know it won’t fit well into the blog here. I’ll do my best but you can also get the Word Doc, which makes it easier to manipulate the data to meet your needs.