The new MN County broadband maps are now up on the Office of Broadband Development websites- showing percentage of each county with (and without) broadband access. Earlier I looked at how counties ranked for access to 25/3 (the 2022 MN State speed goal) soon I’ll look at Gig access. You can download the full spreadsheet of MN county details for speeds or 100/20 and Gig.

Here I look at how counties rank for access to 100 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up (the 2026 speed goal).

Top 10 MN Counties for Speeds of 100/20 (drum roll please)

1. Rock 99.93
2. Ramsey 99.84
3. Lac qui Parle 99.57
4. Swift 99.5
5. Beltrami 99.25
6. Hennepin 98.97
7. Big Stone 98.6
8. Dakota 97.42
9. Anoka 97.14
10. Pennington 96.95

The counties in bold are returning to the Top 10 list. Pennington is a new addition; they replace Stevens, which comes in at number 11 with a percentage of 96.79. Congrats and nice work to these counties‼

Bottom 10 MN Counties for Speeds of 100/20 (starting with worst)

1. Kanabec 26.41
2. Redwood 36.48
3. Yellow Medicine 37.71
4. Pine 39.13
5. Lincoln 40.42
6. Faribault 40.56
7. Aitkin 46.66
8. Isanti 48.63
9. Todd 49.12
10. Traverse 50.97

The counties in bold are returning to the Bottom 10 list. I want to congratulate the counties that are off the bottom 10 list!!

• Becker from 87 to 50 (with 73 percent coverage up from 6 percent last year!)
• Otter Tail from 82 to 64 (with 66 percent coverage)
• Norman from 85 to 73 (with 54 percent coverage)
• Mahnomen from 86 to 53 (with 72 percent coverage)

Finally my favorite statistic – the most improved counties.

Top 9 Most Improved County by ranking

1. Becker improved by 37
2. Mahnomen improved by 33
3. Hubbard improved by 27
4. Roseau improved by 10
5. Kittson improved by 8
6. Norman improved by 8
7. Grant improved by 7
8. Clay improved by 6
9. Lac qui Parle improved by 6

You can download a spreadsheet of ranking for 2019 and 2020. Or see the full list below. I know the table will not transfer well to the website BUT it will be searchable.)