Golden Valley is a western first-ring suburb of Minneapolis in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. Its population was 22,552 at the 2020 census, and was estimated to be 21,263 in 2024. Minnesota State Highway 55 runs through the city, providing a direct route to downtown Minneapolis.
Golden Valley is the main corporate headquarters of General Mills, a major flour-milling and food-products company originally located in Minneapolis. It is the site of Pentair's U.S. headquarters and local NBC affiliate KARE. The city was also home to the former Minneapolis-Honeywell headquarters, which is now the Resideo Technologies corporate offices.
History
Golden Valley is located on the ancestral lands of the Dakota people. Ojibwe and Sioux tribes had encampments on nearby Medicine Lake. The first white settlers arrived in the early 1850s. Golden Valley was incorporated on December 17, 1886. In the early 20th century, it was mostly a farming community.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which (0.03% or 218 ac) is covered by water.
Golden Valley High School was founded in 1957, and the adjacent Golden Valley Middle School opened in 1964. Both closed in the early 1980s after the Golden Valley School District merged with the Hopkins School District. Carl Sandburg Junior High School opened in 1959. In 1988, it became Sandburg Middle School. In 1981, the Breck School, a private Episcopal school, purchased the former Golden Valley High School and Middle School property and moved from Minneapolis to the campus of the former Golden Valley schools.
King of Grace Lutheran School is a Christian preschool, elementary school, and middle school of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod in Golden Valley.
Also, a private elementary Catholic School named Good Shepherd Catholic School changed its name in 2006 from Parkvalley Catholic.
What is now the site of the Perpich Center for Arts Education was originally Golden Valley Lutheran College, which closed in May 1985.
Economy
thumb|right|General Mills' corporate campus in Golden Valley
Major employers in the city include:
- UnitedHealth Group
- Honeywell
- Tennant
- Pentair
- KARE, NBC television affiliate for the Twin Cities
- Minnesota United FC – headquarters for the Major League Soccer franchise
- Bluestone Garden
- Room and Board
- USFamily.net
Golden Valley's population is around 22,000, but more than 30,000 people work there, because of the presence of large employers, including General Mills, Honeywell, and Pentair.
Top employers
According to the City's 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the largest employers in the city are:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Number
! Employer
! Type of business
! Number of employees
! Percentage
|-
| 1
| General Mills, Inc.
| Multinational food manufacturer and marketer
| 3,100
| 9.0%
|-
| 2
| Allianz Life Insurance Company
| Insurance
| 2,000
| 5.8%
|-
| 3
| Honeywell Incorporated
| Manufacturing
| 2,000
| 5.8%
|-
| 4
| Lubrication Technologies
| Industrial lubrication solutions
| 750
| 2.2%
|-
| 5
| M.A. Mortenson Company
| Construction contractor
| 575
| 1.7%
|-
| 6
| G.H. Tennant Company
| Cleaning products
| 466
| 1.4%
|-
| 7
| Courage Center
| Nonprofit rehabilitation facility
| 400
| 1.2%
|-
| 8
| Preferred One
| Life and health insurance
| 300
| 0.9%
|-
| 9
| Marsh & McLennan Agency
| Insurance brokerage and risk management
| 300
| 0.9%
|-
| 10
| Breck School
| Education
| 250
| 0.7%
|-
|—
|Total employees
|—
|10,141
|29.5%
|}
Demographics
thumb|A deer in a Golden Valley neighborhood