Later this year, I’ll be writing broadband county profiles based on the upcoming mapping. Today I wanted to share ranking for maps created over the summer. I am looking at how counties rank for percentage of households with access to broadband at speeds of 100 Mbps down and 20 up. You can find the full list below in alphabetical order.

Here are the top 10:

Compared to last year, there’s a big upset with Lincoln County taking the top spot; a position Rock County has held for a couple years. But both are doing well with more than 99 percent coverage. Wadena is the only new entrant in the top 10. They were at rank 13 last year; so congrats to them as well. Want to call out Lincoln County for great strides made in a short time. They were in the bottom 10 list in 2020 and now they are top of the pops!

Here are the bottom 10:

Cass and Murray Counties are new to the bottom 10. The others have been here before. Kanabec and Pine are hugging the bottom spot for the second year in a row.

What’s striking is the difference between the top and bottom ranking counties. Kanabec has been working on better broadband with the Blandin Foundation for years but only 23 percent of their county has broadband access at 100/20 while the top 23 counties have more than 90 percent coverage.

Here is the full list: