The Office of Broadband Development has released the county broadband maps and numbers; the data was collected by October 2021. For archival reasons, I’ll do three different posting looking at:
- 2021 MN County Ranking at speeds of 25/3
- 2021 MN County Ranking at speeds of 100/20
- 2021 MN County Ranking at speeds of Gigs
The speed goal for 2026 is ubiquitous access to speeds of 100 Mbps down and 20 up. Rankings are posted below but also available as a spreadsheet.
Top 10 Counties include:
| County | percent | Ranking | last year ranking |
| Rock | 99.93 | 1 | 1 |
| Lac qui Parle | 99.83 | 2 | 3 |
| Ramsey | 99.74 | 3 | 2 |
| Clearwater | 99.59 | 4 | 4 |
| Beltrami | 99.24 | 5 | 6 |
| Lincoln | 99.03 | 6 | 7 |
| Hennepin | 98.51 | 7 | 8 |
| Pennington | 98.19 | 8 | 10 |
| Big Stone | 98.05 | 9 | 9 |
| Swift | 97.45 | 10 | 5 |
As you can see the competition is holding it’s own. There’s some movement within the top 10 as a few gain incremental increases but they hold down the fort. Rock County is still at top! And while I live in Ramsey myself, I’m pleased to see a more rural county eke in for number two spot.
Bottom 10 Counties include:
| County | percent | Ranking | last year ranking |
| Murray | 54.37 | 78 | 77 |
| Aitkin | 52.77 | 79 | 78 |
| Carlton | 52.04 | 80 | 79 |
| Traverse | 50.97 | 81 | 80 |
| Isanti | 50.43 | 82 | 81 |
| Todd | 48.38 | 83 | 82 |
| Yellow Medicine | 48.07 | 84 | 83 |
| Redwood | 45.21 | 85 | 85 |
| Pine | 39.72 | 86 | 86 |
| Kanabec | 25.81 | 87 | 87 |
Again this is very little change. Except for Faribault; percentage of access in Faribault went from 43.95 (rank 84) to 65.51 (rank 72). Congrats to them! That left one space one for Murray County, they dropped from 77 to 78 this year.
Big Changers
The Most Improved award this year goes to McLeod. They went from 58.09 (rank 74) to 77.65 (rank 49). Brown County moved up 16 spots and Houston moved up 15. I’m saddened to see Le Sueur and Kandiyohi Counties lose ground. Le Sueur went from 76 percent (rank 49) to 71.32 (rank 62) as a result of new data reported by MetroNet (that differed from what Jaguar had previously reported).
Kandiyohi went from 74.82 (rank 53) to 69.86 (rank 66). This reflects a change from census block data to more granular data from Charter/Spectrum. So they counties haven’t lost ground, there’s just been some correction happening. Other counties may have also seen changes due to the more granular reporting from CenturyLink and Charter/Spectrum.
| County | percent | Ranking |
| Rock | 99.93 | 1 |
| Lac qui Parle | 99.83 | 2 |
| Ramsey | 99.74 | 3 |
| Clearwater | 99.59 | 4 |
| Beltrami | 99.24 | 5 |
| Lincoln | 99.03 | 6 |
| Hennepin | 98.51 | 7 |
| Pennington | 98.19 | 8 |
| Big Stone | 98.05 | 9 |
| Swift | 97.45 | 10 |
| Anoka | 96.92 | 11 |
| Dakota | 96.89 | 12 |
| Stevens | 96.79 | 13 |
| Wadena | 95.7 | 14 |
| Cook | 94.5 | 15 |
| Washington | 94.28 | 16 |
| Red Lake | 93.85 | 17 |
| Lake | 93.32 | 18 |
| Olmsted | 92.98 | 19 |
| Scott | 91.92 | 20 |
| Polk | 91.71 | 21 |
| Carver | 91.16 | 22 |
| Hubbard | 90.85 | 23 |
| Clay | 88.83 | 24 |
| Benton | 88.66 | 25 |
| Sherburne | 88.12 | 26 |
| Steele | 87.77 | 27 |
| Itasca | 86.65 | 28 |
| Freeborn | 85.6 | 29 |
| Roseau | 85.23 | 30 |
| Winona | 85.13 | 31 |
| Crow Wing | 84.24 | 32 |
| Rice | 84.06 | 33 |
| Brown | 83.27 | 34 |
| Stearns | 83.22 | 35 |
| Houston | 83.16 | 36 |
| Mower | 82.47 | 37 |
| Wright | 81.79 | 38 |
| Lyon | 81.45 | 39 |
| Nobles | 81.24 | 40 |
| Dodge | 80.59 | 41 |
| Chippewa | 80.27 | 42 |
| Kittson | 80.13 | 43 |
| Pipestone | 80.11 | 44 |
| Blue Earth | 79.01 | 45 |
| St. Louis | 78.28 | 46 |
| Nicollet | 78.07 | 47 |
| Goodhue | 77.84 | 48 |
| McLeod | 77.65 | 49 |
| Marshall | 77.39 | 50 |
| Wilkin | 76.73 | 51 |
| Lake of the Woods | 74.31 | 52 |
| Pope | 74 | 53 |
| Becker | 73.6 | 54 |
| Waseca | 73.55 | 55 |
| Koochiching | 72.85 | 56 |
| Chisago | 72.55 | 57 |
| Morrison | 72.47 | 58 |
| Grant | 71.99 | 59 |
| Douglas | 71.94 | 60 |
| Mahnomen | 71.73 | 61 |
| Le Sueur | 71.32 | 62 |
| Renville | 71.01 | 63 |
| Meeker | 70.73 | 64 |
| Wabasha | 70.35 | 65 |
| Kandiyohi | 69.86 | 66 |
| Watonwan | 69.78 | 67 |
| Jackson | 68.84 | 68 |
| Otter Tail | 67.6 | 69 |
| Cottonwood | 67.44 | 70 |
| Martin | 66.66 | 71 |
| Faribault | 65.51 | 72 |
| Sibley | 63.8 | 73 |
| Cass | 61.04 | 74 |
| Mille Lacs | 60.44 | 75 |
| Fillmore | 56.36 | 76 |
| Norman | 55 | 77 |
| Murray | 54.37 | 78 |
| Aiktin | 52.77 | 79 |
| Carlton | 52.04 | 80 |
| Traverse | 50.97 | 81 |
| Isanti | 50.43 | 82 |
| Todd | 48.38 | 83 |
| Yellow Medicine | 48.07 | 84 |
| Redwood | 45.21 | 85 |
| Pine | 39.72 | 86 |
| Kanabec | 25.81 | 87 |
Source: Connected Nation, Oct. 2021.
Blandin on Broadband 