Ah, Minnesota: The Land of 10,000 Lakes, the home of the original zombie pub zrawl, the birthplace of Prince and Bob Dylan, and, apparently, a place simply littered with gophers. If this doesn’t get you excited about Minnesota, we don’t know what will.
Here at the
Movoto Real Estate Blog, through careful analysis and much crunching of numbers, we have discovered the 10 most thrilling, most exhilarating, and all around most Gopher-tastic places in the state. What? It’s an expression.
Here are the 10 most exciting places in Minnesota, starting with our winner, Minneapolis:
1.
City of Minneapolis
2.
City of St. Paul
3.
City of Duluth
4.
City of Prior Lake
5.
City of St. Cloud (tie)
5.
City of Burnsville (tie)
7.
City of Austin
8.
City of Winona
9.
City of Rochester
10.
City of Mankato
We know what you’re thinking: How in the world did Minneapolis beat Blaine, the home of… all those highways? Well, we’ll get to that. In the next section, we’ll take a look at the method behind this madness.
How We Created This Ranking
First, we traversed the world of the U.S. Census (2010) to gather a list of the 50 most populous places in the state. Then, we used both the Census and business listings to discover each place’s most exciting mysteries—i.e., data on the following eight criteria:
- Nightlife per capita (bars, clubs, comedy, etc.)
- Live music venues per capita
- Active life options per capita (parks, outdoor activities, etc.)
- Arts and Entertainment per capita (movie theaters, festivals, galleries, theaters, etc.)
- Fast Food restaurants per capita (the fewer the better)
- Percentage of restaurants that are not fast food (the higher the better)
- Percentage of young residents ages 18 to 34 (the higher the better)
- Population density (the higher the better)
After taking a brief break from all of the excitement, we got back to it and ranked each of our places with scores from one to 50 according to the above criteria; the lower the score, the better.
We averaged these rankings into one overall Big Deal Score, where again, the lowest score was the most exciting place. In this case, that honor went to none other than the Midwest hipster’s haven and all around city of awesome, Minneapolis.
You can see a list of all 50 places at the end of the article, but first—as one famous artist, formerly a resident of our winning city might say, we’re going to party like it’s 1999. So let’s start with Minneapolis.
1. Minneapolis
Alright, let’s be honest: We all knew Minneapolis was going to win this, right? After all, people from all over the country are always gushing about this place. But why? Well, mathematically speaking, because it’s awesome.
Minneapolis ranked nearly four points better than our No. 2 place, making this the biggest gap in between spots on our list, and it came in at No. 1 in nightlife, music venues, active life, arts per capita, and population density.
So next time you’re in Minneapolis hanging out at the Riverview Theater, reading at the Wild Rumpus, or munching on something from The Wienery, and you’re thinking how awesome the place is, well, you’re right. It’s mathematic.
2. St. Paul
We’d like to say that St. Paul came in as a close second, but we all know I’d be lying. On the plus side, there was a pretty substantial gap between St. Paul and our next place as well, meaning St. Paul is still way cooler than Duluth.
Why? Because in St. Paul, the population density is high (nearly as much as that of Minneapolis), the people are young, with 30.8 percent of the population being between 18 and 34, and there is a lot to do.
It ranked fifth and seventh for nightlife and music venues per capita, respectively, with places like the Bulldog Lowertown, Turf Club, and the Happy Gnome.
It ranked fourth for its active life options, and with the Science Museum, the History Center, and so many theaters it’s hard to count, it ranked third for arts and entertainment per capita.
3. Duluth
Home to several schools like the University of Minnesota Duluth, the College of St. Scholastica, and Lake Superior College, just to name a few, Duluth is one of the younger places on our list, with 32.92 percent of the population being between 18 and 34.
And what comes with a younger population? In Duluth, it’s mostly art and live music, seeing as though it ranked second and third in these categories, respectively.
The city also has its share of nightlife options, from the diviest of the dives like Curly’s Bar to the more clubby spots like Red Star.
4. Prior Lake
This city may be just a quick 20 miles from Minneapolis, but as our numbers show, there is plenty of excitement for locals right here, especially if you’re into food.
This place ranked first not only for its number of non-fast food restaurants, but also for its lack of fast food. There’s Perrons’ Sul Lago for Italian, the Artisan Bistro & Bar, and there’s even some decent Mexican food at Teresa’s.
As we said, the only thing this place seems to lack is boring fast food; if you want that, you might want to head to Mankato, which had the most fast food per capita.
5. St. Cloud
St. Cloud may not have aced our analysis for its restaurants, like Prior Lake… prior to this, but it really excelled for its young population.
This city is home to several colleges, including St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud Technical and Community College, and Rasmussen College. So it’s no surprise that a whopping 39.46 percent of its population was between 18 and 34.
Aside from being young, St. Cloud also seems to have something of a creative streak, ranking seventh and eighth in arts and music venues per capita, respectively, with places like the Paramount Arts District, Pioneer Place on Fifth, and for some evening excitement, the Veranda Lounge.
5. Burnsville
First of all, we didn’t mean to
burn this city by listing it as the second No. 5; it tied fair and square with St. Cloud above, with the exact same number of points.
However, where St. Cloud scored well for its young population, arts, and music, Burnsville impressed us with its number of young people, arts, and active life options...
Okay, so they’re pretty similar, really; but Burnsville also stood out was in its population density, ranking 17th in this category. So even if you’re not into art or active living, with 2,421 people per square mile, you’re bound to bump into somebody fun while you’re out and about.
7. Austin
Austin: The Live Music Capital of the… Oh, wait, that’s the other one. In fact, Austin, Minnesota only ranked 26th for its number of music venues per capita.
Don’t worry, if you’re looking for something to do at night, there are plenty of bars like Dusty’s Bar & Lounge and B & J Bar, just to name a couple.
If you’re looking for something to do during the day, though, Austin has a variety of arts and entertainment options, ranking fourth in this category, and tons of restaurants like El Mariachi, the Old Mill Restaurant, and Steve’s Pizza, ranking 10th in this category.
8. Winona
Did you know that Winona was named after Princess Winona, daughter of Chief Wapasha? Did you know that it’s the stained glass capital of the world? Did you know that it’s awesome?
Here’s why: Winona ranked second in not one or two, but three of our categories: young population, nightlife, and active life options per capita.
Not only that, but the whopping 43.7 percent of the population who are between 18 and 34 (and everyone else) have plenty of live music and arts options per capita, ranking fourth and fifth in these categories.
9. Rochester
Where some of our top 10 places ranked very well in one or two categories, but bombed the others, Rochester did pretty well across the board.
It ranked seventh for its number of nightlife places per capita, 11th for its arts, and 12th for its young population, with 25.21 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 34.
With places like Pescara, La Perla, 300 First, Mango Thai, and oh my gosh so many more, Rochester also ranked pretty well (18th) for its high number of non-boring (non-fast food) restaurants per capita.
10. Mankato
If you’ve been to Mankato, you know one thing is for sure: This is a college town. Perhaps the college town. In fact, out of the roughly 39,000 people who live here, nearly half of them are between 18 and 34 (47.82 percent to be exact).
Along with that, it may be no surprise to learn that this youngest of places also ranked among the best for nightlife, arts, and active life options per capita. In fact, the only real reason Mankato didn’t rank higher in our analysis was its absolutely terrible score in the fast food category: it ranked 50th.
But who knows… maybe the colleges have killer cafeterias?
Party Like It’s 2014
Despite what one famous Minneapolis native once sang, residents in these 10 places don’t have to party like it’s 1999, because clearly, 2014 is plenty exciting. If you’d like to get in the excitement, well, we can help, seeing as houses is kinda what we do here.
If your hometown didn’t quite make this VIP list, don’t worry; you can see the rankings of all 50 places we looked at below.
