Hennepin County, MN

Settlement & growth (pre-1960)

Before European settlement, the area now known as Hennepin County was the homeland of the Dakota people, particularly the Mdewakanton band, who lived in villages along the Mississippi, Minnesota, and St. Croix rivers. French fur traders and missionaries, including Father Louis Hennepin for whom the county is named, explored the region in the late 1600s, but permanent non-Native settlement did not begin until the 1830s and 1840s. The U.S. government forced the Dakota to cede their lands through a series of treaties, opening the territory to Euro-American settlers after the 1851 Treaty of Traverse des Sioux.

The first major wave of American settlers were Yankees from New England and New York, who arrived in the 1850s and 1860s, establishing the towns of Minneapolis, St. Anthony (now part of Minneapolis), and Wayzata. They were drawn by the water power of St. Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River, which fueled a booming lumber and flour milling industry. These early settlers were largely Protestant, well-educated, and politically active, laying the foundation for the county’s civic institutions, including the University of Minnesota and the Minneapolis public school system.

Beginning in the 1870s and accelerating through the 1890s, a massive wave of immigrants from Scandinavia—primarily Sweden and Norway—arrived to work in the mills, railroads, and farms. They concentrated in working-class neighborhoods of Minneapolis, such as Northeast Minneapolis (still known as “Nordcast”) and the Bryant area, as well as in farming communities like Osseo and Maple Grove. Germans also arrived in large numbers during this period, settling in Minneapolis and the industrial suburb of St. Louis Park. By 1900, the county was overwhelmingly white, with a strong Lutheran and Catholic religious character.

The early 20th century saw a smaller but significant influx of Polish, Italian, and Eastern European Jewish immigrants, who formed ethnic enclaves in Minneapolis’s Near North and Phillips neighborhoods. The Great Migration of African Americans from the South began during World War I and accelerated through the 1940s, with Black families settling primarily in the Near North and South Minneapolis areas. However, Hennepin County’s Black population remained relatively small until after World War II, when the Second Great Migration and the growth of the defense industry brought more Black workers to the Twin Cities.

Modern era (post-1965)

The 1965 Hart-Cellar Immigration Act fundamentally reshaped Hennepin County’s demographics. Prior to 1965, the foreign-born population was small and overwhelmingly European. By 2026, the foreign-born share stands at 5.9%, but the origins have shifted dramatically. The largest new immigrant groups since the 1970s have been Hmong refugees from Laos, who began arriving in the late 1970s and 1980s, settling heavily in Minneapolis’s Phillips and Whittier neighborhoods, as well as in the inner-ring suburb of Brooklyn Park. The Hmong community now numbers over 30,000 in the county, making it one of the largest Hmong populations in the United States.

Since the 1990s, the county has also seen significant immigration from East Africa, particularly Somalia, with Somali families concentrating in Minneapolis’s Cedar-Riverside neighborhood and the suburb of Brooklyn Park. This wave has been driven by refugee resettlement and family reunification. More recently, Indian subcontinent immigrants—primarily from India—have arrived in large numbers, drawn by jobs in the technology and medical sectors. They have settled in affluent western suburbs such as Eden Prairie and Edina, as well as in Minneapolis itself. The county’s Indian population now stands at 2.1%, a figure that has more than doubled since 2000.

Domestic migration has also reshaped the county. Since the 1970s, white, middle-class families have suburbanized heavily, moving from Minneapolis to suburbs like Plymouth, Maple Grove, and Chanhassen. This trend has accelerated since 2010, with the city of Minneapolis losing white population while its Black, Hispanic, and Asian shares have grown. The county’s Hispanic population, now 7.7%, has grown steadily since the 1990s, driven by immigration from Mexico and Central America, with concentrations in Minneapolis’s Phillips neighborhood and the suburb of Richfield.