Category Archives: MN County Profiles 2025

How does the NATIONAL Broadband map rank your MN county for broadband access to a 1000/100? (2025)

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In preparation for the 2025 County Broadband Profiles, I’m looking at the county ranking for broadband access. I am looking at STATE and NATIONAL data. (Read more about why.)

Below is information from the National/FCC maps. There are three posts looking at:

In preparation for the 2025 County Broadband Profiles, I’m looking at the county ranking for broadband access. I always look at

The difference in wireline and fixed wireless will be much less of an issue when looking at speeds of 1000/100 because even in some of the most generous estimated speeds for fixed wireless are not that high. Also, while there were lots of changes in the ranking in other speeds, there weren’t as many changes at this speed. Only one change in the top 10 ranking from last year’s gig access. There bottom 10 ranked changed more.

county 1000/100 1000/100
Red Lake 100 1
Stevens 99.89 2
Lac qui Parle 99.84 3
Beltrami 99.07 4
Clearwater 98.69 5
Pennington 97.98 6
Wadena 96.63 7
Kittson 94.08 8
Olmsted 93.95 9
Cook 92.67 10
Meeker 91.63 11
Clay 90.66 12
Freeborn 90.21 13
Faribault 89.85 14
Itasca 89.38 15
Wilkin 89.36 16
Marshall 88.66 17
Steele 88.64 18
Dodge 88.29 19
Mower 87.53 20
Grant 82.72 21
Polk 80.41 22
Rice 77.09 23
Hennepin 75.79 24
Lake 75.09 25
Pope 75.01 26
Jackson 74.5 27
Goodhue 72.78 28
Brown 71.02 29
Becker 70.62 30
Scott 68.86 31
Ramsey 68.85 32
Crow Wing 67.74 33
Hubbard 66.41 34
Norman 66.27 35
Aitkin 65.87 36
Koochiching 64.39 37
Swift 63.76 38
Houston 63.24 39
Wabasha 62.57 40
Le Sueur 61.47 41
Lincoln 61.1 42
Roseau 61.06 43
Nicollet 59.78 44
Traverse 59.12 45
Redwood 58.81 46
Isanti 58.49 47
Sibley 57.69 48
Mahnomen 57.2 49
Carver 56.65 50
McLeod 56.55 51
Blue Earth 55.72 52
Morrison 54.24 53
Dakota 54.22 54
Todd 53.53 55
Kanabec 52.79 56
Yellow Medicine 52.16 57
Renville 48.43 58
Cass 48.2 59
Pine 47.06 60
Douglas 47.05 61
Cottonwood 46.79 62
Fillmore 45.85 63
Rock 45.41 64
Big Stone 43.01 65
Lake of the Woods 42.63 66
Stearns 41.31 67
Waseca 38.71 68
Otter Tail 38.36 69
Anoka 36.37 70
Sherburne 35.03 71
Wright 32.9 72
Murray 32.56 73
Washington 29.61 74
Kandiyohi 29.14 75
Chippewa 28.66 76
Chisago 28.52 77
Watonwan 27.82 78
Winona 27.6 79
Pipestone 25.27 80
Carlton 25.14 81
Nobles 23.1 82
Martin 22.45 83
St. Louis 19.78 84
Mille Lacs 19.42 85
Lyon 18.8 86
Benton 1.96 87

How does the NATIONAL Broadband map rank your MN county for broadband access to 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up? (2025)

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In preparation for the 2025 County Broadband Profiles, I’m looking at the county ranking for broadband access. I am looking at STATE and NATIONAL data. (Read more about why.)

Below is information from the National/FCC maps. There are three posts looking at:

Notes on Ranking for 25/3

I look at percentage of households with access to broadband at speeds of at least 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up because the state goal was “by 2022, all Minnesota businesses and homes must have access to high-speed broadband with minimum download speeds of 25 Mbps and minimum upload speeds of 3 Mbps.”

As you can see below, most of the counties have more than 90 percent access at this speed. Not being having access to 90 percent is a red flag.

county 25/3 25/3 rank
Red Lake 100 1
Pennington 100 1
Freeborn 100 1
Wilkin 100 1
Steele 100 1
Dodge 100 1
Waseca 100 1
Murray 100 1
Chippewa 100 1
Watonwan 100 1
Pipestone 100 1
Nobles 100 1
Martin 100 1
Lyon 100 1
Jackson 99.98 15
Yellow Medicine 99.97 16
Stevens 99.96 17
Ramsey 99.96 17
Traverse 99.96 17
Lac qui Parle 99.95 20
Cottonwood 99.93 21
Grant 99.92 22
Carver 99.9 23
Hennepin 99.87 24
Swift 99.86 25
Kandiyohi 99.86 25
Pope 99.85 27
Polk 99.84 28
Clay 99.82 29
Dakota 99.75 30
Mower 99.65 31
Renville 99.63 32
Scott 99.57 33
Wadena 99.52 34
Blue Earth 99.5 35
Clearwater 99.44 36
Beltrami 99.43 37
Rice 99.4 38
Olmsted 99.36 39
Anoka 99.32 40
McLeod 99.28 41
Meeker 99.2 42
Nicollet 99.18 43
Kittson 99.14 44
Brown 99.12 45
Washington 99.06 46
Faribault 98.89 47
Rock 98.77 48
Le Sueur 98.49 49
Hubbard 98.37 50
Marshall 98.36 51
Redwood 98.29 52
Stearns 98.18 53
Big Stone 97.97 54
Benton 97.62 55
Sherburne 97.54 56
Norman 97.2 57
Crow Wing 96.89 58
Otter Tail 96.69 59
Sibley 96.67 60
Morrison 96.62 61
Mille Lacs 96.48 62
Winona 96.32 63
Goodhue 96.3 64
Itasca 96.24 65
Roseau 96.21 66
Wright 95.81 67
Douglas 95.31 68
Becker 94.6 69
Fillmore 94.3 70
Cook 93.04 71
Lake of the Woods 91.41 72
Cass 91.31 73
Isanti 90.4 74
Houston 89.61 75
Chisago 89.57 76
Wabasha 88.42 77
Aitkin 87.31 78
Lake 86.07 79
St. Louis 85.37 80
Mahnomen 84.69 81
Carlton 84.45 82
Lincoln 81.62 83
Kanabec 81.38 84
Todd 79.47 85
Koochiching 78.38 86
Pine 76.7 87

You can also check out county maps of coverage. The darker the color, the better the coverage.

How does the MINNESOTA Broadband map rank your MN county for broadband access to 100 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up? (2025)

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In preparation for the 2025 County Broadband Profiles, I’m looking at the county ranking for broadband access. I am looking at STATE and NATIONAL data. (Read more about why.)

Below is information from the Minnesota maps. There are three posts looking at:

I looked at percentage of households with access to broadband at speeds of at least 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up (in an earlier post) because the state goal is to have all Minnesota businesses and homes must have access to high-speed broadband with minimum download speeds of 100 Mbps and minimum upload speeds of 20 Mbps by 2026.”

Here are the top ranked counties:

county 100/20 10020 rank
Red Lake 100 1
Lac qui Parle 99.94 2
Ramsey 99.92 3
Stevens 99.91 4
Rock 99.91 4
Hennepin 99.64 6
Beltrami 99.6 7
Pope 99.53 8
Lincoln 99.48 9
Pennington 99.44 10

Here are the bottom ranked counties:

county 100/20 10020 rank
Cottonwood 73.21 78
Yellow Medicine 72.93 79
Jackson 72.89 80
Renville 71.78 81
Watonwan 71.32 82
Pine 71.29 83
Cass 70.59 84
Todd 63.35 85
Sibley 61.19 86
Murray 57.44 87

Congratulations to the most improved counties, based on ranking. Some of these leaps are inspiring. Below are the most improved with by number of places improved.

county 2025

2024

 delta
Kanabec 51 87 46
Isanti 39 79 40
Grant 4 38 34
Wilkin 10 30 20
Aitkin 56 75 18
Morrison 49 59 10
Mille Lacs 57 67 10
Kittson 15 23 8
Le Sueur 58 64 8
Norman 20 27 7
Waseca 66 73 7

Below is the complete list:

county 100/20 10020 rank
Red Lake 100 1
Lac qui Parle 99.94 2
Ramsey 99.92 3
Stevens 99.91 4
Rock 99.91 4
Hennepin 99.64 6
Beltrami 99.6 7
Pope 99.53 8
Lincoln 99.48 9
Pennington 99.44 10
Wadena 99.32 11
Kittson 98.82 12
Big Stone 98.81 13
Swift 98.7 14
Polk 98.7 14
Clearwater 98.37 16
Carver 97.85 17
Anoka 97.82 18
Benton 97.54 19
Dakota 97.39 20
Hubbard 97.35 21
Washington 96.97 22
Marshall 96.95 23
Roseau 96.72 24
Itasca 96.17 25
Olmsted 96.16 26
Faribault 95.77 27
Scott 95.6 28
Grant 95.54 29
Sherburne 95.11 30
Wilkin 94.99 31
Crow Wing 94.83 32
Chippewa 93.64 33
Clay 93.61 34
Cook 92.97 35
Lake of the Woods 91.79 36
Stearns 91.07 37
Isanti 90.69 38
Redwood 90.5 39
Otter Tail 90.16 40
Winona 89.67 41
Dodge 88.86 42
Freeborn 88.72 43
Wright 88.01 44
Traverse 87.4 45
Mower 87.19 46
Morrison 87.02 47
Pipestone 86.3 48
Kanabec 86.16 49
Aitkin 86.13 50
Lyon 85.89 51
Nobles 85.58 52
Houston 85.51 53
Steele 85.5 54
Douglas 85.49 55
Le Sueur 85.29 56
Becker 84.4 57
Waseca 84.34 58
Brown 84.13 59
Mille Lacs 84.06 60
Chisago 83.98 61
Rice 83.95 62
Meeker 81.4 63
McLeod 81.33 64
St. Louis 81.23 65
Nicollet 80.91 66
Kandiyohi 80.69 67
Blue Earth 80.52 68
Lake 80.02 69
Mahnomen 79.83 70
Koochiching 79.7 71
Goodhue 79.15 72
Fillmore 78.93 73
Martin 77.22 74
Wabasha 74.86 75
Carlton 74.04 76
Norman 73.33 77
Cottonwood 73.21 78
Yellow Medicine 72.93 79
Jackson 72.89 80
Renville 71.78 81
Watonwan 71.32 82
Pine 71.29 83
Cass 70.59 84
Todd 63.35 85
Sibley 61.19 86
Murray 57.44 87

How does the MINNESOTA Broadband map rank your MN county for broadband access to 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up? (2025)

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In preparation for the 2025 County Broadband Profiles, I’m looking at the county ranking for broadband access. I am looking at STATE and NATIONAL data. (Read more about why.)

Below is information from the Minnesota maps. There are three posts looking at:

Notes on Ranking for 25/3

I look at percentage of households with access to broadband at speeds of at least 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up because the state goal was “by 2022, all Minnesota businesses and homes must have access to high-speed broadband with minimum download speeds of 25 Mbps and minimum upload speeds of 3 Mbps.”

Nice to see 47 counties have 90 percent coverage or better. Also, the least percentage of coverage has gone from 51 percent to 61 percent. This is a wakeup call for folks near the bottom of the list.

Here’s the full ranking list:

county 25/3 253 rank
Red Lake 100 1
Ramsey 99.95 2
Lac qui Parle 99.94 3
Grant 99.93 4
Stevens 99.91 5
Rock 99.91 5
Hennepin 99.69 7
Beltrami 99.64 8
Pope 99.53 9
Wilkin 99.52 10
Pennington 99.5 11
Lincoln 99.48 12
Wadena 99.32 13
Clearwater 99.24 14
Kittson 99.2 15
Polk 98.93 16
Swift 98.82 17
Anoka 98.81 18
Big Stone 98.81 19
Norman 98.56 20
Washington 98.13 21
Carver 98.07 22
Hubbard 97.94 23
Marshall 97.92 24
Benton 97.85 25
Dakota 97.69 26
Roseau 97.61 27
Faribault 96.67 28
Olmsted 96.64 29
Sherburne 96.63 30
Itasca 96.43 31
Scott 96.36 32
Crow Wing 96.24 33
Clay 95.87 34
Otter Tail 94.98 35
Chippewa 93.85 36
Lake of the Woods 93.78 37
Stearns 93.42 38
Isanti 93.39 39
Cook 93.02 40
Douglas 91.92 41
Redwood 91.82 42
Wright 91.78 43
Becker 91.61 44
Dodge 90.24 45
Winona 90.14 46
Freeborn 89.76 47
Cass 89.67 48
Morrison 88.98 49
Pipestone 88.84 50
Kanabec 88.8 51
Mower 88.41 52
Nobles 88.37 53
Rice 88.04 54
Traverse 87.57 55
Aitkin 87.49 56
Mille Lacs 87.45 57
Le Sueur 87.27 58
Kandiyohi 87.09 59
Mahnomen 86.7 60
McLeod 86.68 61
Steele 86.4 62
Lyon 86.36 63
Houston 85.95 64
Blue Earth 85.9 65
Waseca 85.71 66
Chisago 85.59 67
Brown 84.78 68
Nicollet 84.01 69
St. Louis 83.8 70
Meeker 83.21 71
Fillmore 82.76 72
Koochiching 81.11 73
Goodhue 80.57 74
Martin 80.27 75
Lake 80.11 76
Carlton 79.54 77
Wabasha 78.6 78
Cottonwood 78.57 79
Yellow Medicine 78.27 80
Watonwan 75.47 81
Pine 75.27 82
Jackson 73.84 83
Renville 73.69 84
Todd 69.96 85
Sibley 65.46 86
Murray 61.25 87

Why two sets of Broadband County Rankings? One is MN and one is national

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Long story short, I have two rankings for the MN County Profiles this year. One is based on MN data and maps from MN Office of Broadband. The other comes from the FCC National Broadband Maps. The big difference is that the FCC maps track fixed and wireline broadband and the MN maps I have used do not. (The MN Maps can track fixed and/or wireline; I chose to use their wireline maps.) BEAD defines a house with access to a fixed connection (at the right speed) as served; Minnesota focuses on wireline. (I wrote more on the difference between the fixed and wireline in 2023. In the 2023 County Profiles, I looked at both national and MN maps.)

All of this is in preparation for the MN County Profiles. There are so many moving pieces. My plan is to post the MN ranking for access to 25/3, 100/20 and Gig in three separate posts. Then, I will follow that up with three posts on the FCC National Broadband Maps. It’s a lot of information but I think it’s valuable and for archival purposes, I think it’s best parsed into separate posts. I plan to post all of these today.

For now, here’s a sneak peek of the results.

[The links below were added once the ranking posts went live.]

Links to Minnesota Ranking:

Links to National Ranking:

How does the NATIONAL Broadband map rank your MN county for broadband access to 100 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up? (2025)

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In preparation for the 2025 County Broadband Profiles, I’m looking at the county ranking for broadband access. I am looking at STATE and NATIONAL data. (Read more about why.)

Below is information from the National/FCC maps. There are three posts looking at:

Notes on Ranking for 25/3

I looked at percentage of households with access to broadband at speeds of at least 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up because the state goal is to have all Minnesota businesses and homes must have access to high-speed broadband with minimum download speeds of 100 Mbps and minimum upload speeds of 20 Mbps by 2026.”

There are a lot of changes in ranking and the coverage rates. Without digging into the details (which I will do with the County Profiles), it’s difficult to tell if this reflects greater broadband expansion in the field or reflects the inclusion of fixed wireless to the definition of broadband.

Top 10 Counties with access to 100/20

The top 10 counties have 100 percent coverage. Last year only Red Lake had 100 percent.

county 100/20 10020 rank
Red Lake 100 1
Freeborn 100 1
Steele 100 1
Dodge 100 1
Waseca 100 1
Murray 100 1
Chippewa 100 1
Watonwan 100 1
Martin 100 1
Lyon 100 1

Bottom 10 Counties with access to 100/20

Six of the bottom counties are new to the bottom list – in bold. Or at least weren’t on it last year. The difference in coverage rates is striking. In 2025, the bottom ranking counties have coverage from 70 to 80 percent. In 2024, the range was 36 to 67 percent. Hopefully, we can learn more when I dig into the County Profiles

county 100/20 100/20 rank
Mahnomen 79.29 78
Wabasha 79.15 79
St. Louis 78.34 80
Lincoln 77.1 81
Koochiching 76.83 82
Carlton 72.6 83
Kanabec 71.83 84
Cass 71.82 85
Pine 69.65 86
Todd 69.57 87

Here is the full list of ranking:

county 100/20 100/20 rank
Red Lake 100 1
Freeborn 100 1
Steele 100 1
Dodge 100 1
Waseca 100 1
Murray 100 1
Chippewa 100 1
Watonwan 100 1
Martin 100 1
Lyon 100 1
Nobles 99.98 11
Pipestone 99.97 12
Traverse 99.96 13
Stevens 99.95 14
Lac qui Parle 99.95 14
Ramsey 99.85 16
Yellow Medicine 99.83 17
Carver 99.8 18
Hennepin 99.72 19
Kandiyohi 99.69 20
Swift 99.59 21
Polk 99.57 22
Dakota 99.56 23
Clay 99.47 24
Wadena 99.41 25
Blue Earth 99.37 26
Mower 99.35 27
Renville 99.35 27
Beltrami 99.19 29
Pope 99.13 30
Scott 99.07 31
Pennington 99 32
Cottonwood 98.81 33
Rock 98.74 34
Clearwater 98.69 35
Kittson 98.66 36
Rice 98.58 37
Olmsted 98.57 38
Meeker 98.34 39
Anoka 98.27 40
Jackson 98.24 41
Nicollet 98.16 42
Washington 97.99 43
Marshall 97.97 44
Big Stone 97.92 45
Le Sueur 97.67 46
Faribault 97.59 47
Hubbard 97.37 48
Grant 97.12 49
McLeod 96.38 50
Wilkin 96.12 51
Itasca 95.89 52
Brown 95.87 53
Sherburne 95.62 54
Mille Lacs 95.16 55
Goodhue 95.12 56
Sibley 94.98 57
Roseau 94.77 58
Crow Wing 94.51 59
Stearns 94.49 60
Norman 94.1 61
Morrison 93.84 62
Winona 93.74 63
Redwood 92.6 64
Cook 92.47 65
Wright 91.25 66
Benton 90.94 67
Otter Tail 90.51 68
Fillmore 89.53 69
Lake of the Woods 88.32 70
Becker 87.69 71
Houston 87.49 72
Chisago 85.45 73
Lake 84.99 74
Douglas 84.96 75
Aitkin 84.1 76
Isanti 83.18 77
Mahnomen 79.29 78
Wabasha 79.15 79
St. Louis 78.34 80
Lincoln 77.1 81
Koochiching 76.83 82
Carlton 72.6 83
Kanabec 71.83 84
Cass 71.82 85
Pine 69.65 86
Todd 69.57 87