Four Minnesota Towns Named the Best Places to Live in the Country

An annual report has come out for 2024 of the top 100 best places to live in the country. It's a pretty cool list featuring some better-known towns and also some lesser-known towns as well. And four of the towns that made the list are in Minnesota!

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One of the Minnesota towns has been on the list for a few years in a row now. Another was on the list in 2022 but not 2023, so they made a comeback. And the other two I didn't see on the top 100 lists for either 2022 or 2023, so first-timers!

How the Best Places to Live in the US Were Chosen

The annual study is done by Livability. Each year they look at tons of different data points to determine which 100 towns make the list.

On their site, they write that the study "takes into account measures of a city’s economy, housing and cost of living, amenities, transportation, environment, safety, education and health."

The four Minnesota towns I mentioned aren't the only Midwest towns to make the list. Let's take a quick look at the towns in our neighboring states that made the top 100 and then we'll dive into the Minnesota towns.

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Best Place to Live in North Dakota

There's one North Dakota town that made the top 100 list and that would be Fargo. They ranked as the 47th best place to list in the country.

Best Place to Live in South Dakota

Two South Dakota towns made the list. At number 64 is Sioux Falls and at number 93 is Rapid City.

Best Places to Live in Iowa

Two towns in Iowa also made the list. Those would be Cedar Rapids at number 41 and Iowa City at number 55.

Best Places to Live in Wisconsin

And finally, before we get to the best places to live in Minnesota, there are also two Wisconsin towns in the top 100 best places to live in the US. At number 44 we have Madison and at number 53 we have Appleton.

Best Places to Live in Minnesota

The moment we've all been waiting for! Our neighboring towns all have a maximum of two towns on the top 100 list but we're over here overachieving with four.

Let's start with the town that ranked lowest on the list. Coming in as the 79th best place to live in the US is St. Paul.

Going up the list, at number 66 we've got Duluth.

Then taking a big leap up to the 30th best place to live in the country we've got Rochester.

Rochester is the Minnesota town that made the list in 2022 but missed out in 2023.

And the Minnesota town that ranked the highest was named the 21st best place to live in the country. That would be Bloomington!

Bloomington has been on the list for the past few years in a row now.