Minneapolis
Where is Minneapolis located?
Why are people protesting in Minneapolis in 2026?
What sparked protests in Minneapolis in 2020?
What is the significance of St. Anthony Falls in the history of Minneapolis?
What educational institutions are located in Minneapolis?
News •
Minneapolis, city, seat of Hennepin county, southeastern Minnesota, U.S. It lies at the head of navigation on the Mississippi River, near the river’s confluence with the Minnesota River. With adjoining St. Paul to the east, it forms the Twin Cities metropolitan area, the largest conurbation in the state and in the U.S. north-central region. Suburban communities include Columbia Heights (north), Brooklyn Park (northwest), Plymouth and St. Louis Park (west), and Richfield and Bloomington (south).
Minneapolis, the state’s most populous city, spreads out on a relatively level plain. Within its limits are 22 lakes and lagoons and some 170 parks. The city’s riverfront is part of Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (1988). Lake Minnetonka, 12 miles (19 km) long and with 110 miles (177 km) of irregular shoreline, is in the western suburban area; its outlet, Minnehaha Creek, flows eastward and then drops 53 feet (16 meters) over an escarpment at Minnehaha Falls. The climate is cool temperate, with long cold winters and warm summers. Area city, 58 square miles (150 square km). Pop. (2010) 382,578; Minneapolis–St. Paul–Bloomington Metro Area, 3,279,833; (2020) 429,954; Minneapolis–St. Paul–Bloomington Metro Area, 3,690,261.
History
Oceti Sakowin and Ojibwe (self-name Anishinaabe) peoples were early inhabitants of the region. The Franciscan missionary Louis Hennepin visited the area in 1680 and named St. Anthony Falls, which later provided power for grinding flour for Fort Snelling (1819; now a state park), a military outpost at the confluence of the rivers. The village of St. Anthony developed on the east side of the falls. Settlers had begun occupying U.S. military-reservation land on the west side of the river in 1849; in 1855 the government gave these illegal squatters patent rights, and the village of Minneapolis was incorporated in 1856. Its name was derived from the Oceti Sakowin word minne, meaning “water,” and the Greek polis, for “city.” St. Anthony was chartered as a city in 1860 and Minneapolis in 1867; the two cities merged as Minneapolis in 1872.
The falls were an important factor in the city’s early economic growth as a lumber and flour-milling center. By 1870 Minneapolis was the country’s top producer of flour. The lumber business reached its height in the late 19th century, when logs from the forests of the north jammed the river. As wheat growing in the northwest increased, flour milling superseded lumbering as the leading industry (the last lumber mill closed in 1919). Railroads, which multiplied connections with Chicago and the south and with the east through Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, were completed in the late 19th century. After World War I the availability of lower freight charges by means of Great Lakes shipping shifted much of the export flour trade to Buffalo, New York, though Minneapolis remained the headquarters for some large milling companies. In the second half of the 20th century, the city remained one of the nation’s primary wheat markets; the Minneapolis Grain Exchange was still one of the largest cash exchange markets in the world.
The population of Minneapolis grew steadily from the late 19th to the mid-20th century, reaching a peak of 521,718 in 1950. The number of people subsequently began declining until about 1990, when the city population basically stabilized. At the same time, the population of the Twin Cities metropolitan area increased rapidly, fueled by the movement of thousands from city to suburbs. Throughout the city’s history the great majority of its residents have been of European (notably Scandinavian) ancestry, but that proportion has been decreasing, and the number of African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics has been growing; Black people in 2020 constituted roughly one-fifth of the population.
Minneapolis garnered national and international attention on August 1, 2007, when the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed unexpectedly during rush hour, causing 13 fatalities and nearly 150 injuries. A year later the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the bridge had collapsed because of a design flaw. The incident sparked nationwide concern for the safety of the country’s infrastructure.
The city was gripped by turmoil in May 2020, when George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who had been detained by Minneapolis police, was killed after an officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes, during which time Floyd repeatedly stated, “I can’t breathe.” A bystander used her phone to take a video of the incident, which went viral and generated outrage over the circumstances of Floyd’s death. Protests in Minneapolis erupted the next day and persisted in the following weeks, with looting and property damage occurring in some areas. Protests also spread across the country and the globe, with millions of people calling for justice for Floyd and for reform in general to address the broader issues of police brutality and racial injustice.
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Minneapolis was once again a center of unrest beginning in late 2025 amidst a federal immigration crackdown. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Operation Metro Surge sent a large number of agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies into the Twin Cities area. The operation—which initially targeted Somalis in the state—was met with criticism from the start, including from the state’s governor and the mayor of Minneapolis, with concerns that it would violate residents’ civil rights.
Opposition to the federal government’s operation further intensified after immigration agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in January 2026, which led to nationwide protests over the government’s immigration enforcement tactics. On February 12 a federal official announced that the operation would be ending and that a drawdown of immigration personnel was already underway.
The contemporary city
Minneapolis is now a commercial, transportation, distribution, health care, financial, and industrial center. Highly diversified manufactures include metal products, electronics, precision instruments, medical devices, plastics, machinery, computers and computer equipment, chemicals, automotive parts, and agricultural products. Publishing, milling, food processing, graphic arts, insurance, and high-technology industries are also important. The Twin Cities region is a rail and trucking center and includes a major international airport in the southeastern corner of Minneapolis. The Skyway, a system of enclosed, climate-controlled pedestrian walkways located on the second-floor level, connects various points in the downtown area. A light-rail transit system debuted in 2004, with a line connecting downtown Minneapolis with the airport and the Mall of America in suburban Bloomington, and has since been expanded.
Minneapolis has the main portion of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (1851), campus; other institutions of higher education include Augsburg University (Lutheran; 1869), Dunwoody College of Technology (1914), Minneapolis College of Art and Design (1886), a campus of Metro State University (1971), and North Central University (Pentecostal; 1930). Of historical and cultural interest are the Guthrie Theater, the Minnesota Opera’s Luminary Arts Center and North Loop headquarters, the Minnesota Orchestra, the American Swedish Institute, the Walker Art Center, the Hennepin History Museum, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Several professional sports teams are based in Minneapolis. Target Field is home to Minnesota’s baseball (Twins) team, and the state’s football (Vikings) team plays at U.S. Bank Stadium. The state’s men’s (Timberwolves) and women’s (Lynx) professional basketball teams play at the Target Center.