Minneapolis–Saint Paul is a major metropolitan area built around the confluence of the Mississippi, Minnesota, and St. Croix rivers in east central Minnesota. The area is commonly known as the Twin Cities after its two largest cities, Minneapolis, the state's most populous city, and its neighbor to the east, Saint Paul, the capital. Minnesotans often refer to the two together (or the metro area collectively) as "the Cities." It is the third-largest metropolitan area in the Midwest and the 16th-largest metropolitan statistical area in the U.S.

Minneapolis and Saint Paul are independent municipalities with defined borders. Minneapolis is mostly west of the Mississippi River and is somewhat more modern, with a relatively young downtown and trendy uptown. Saint Paul, which is mostly east of the river, has been likened to an East Coast city, with quaint neighborhoods and many well-preserved houses with late-Victorian architecture. The cities' distinct cultures led an observer to say, "St. Paul is the last city of the East; Minneapolis the first city of the West."

Originally inhabited by Ojibwe and Dakota people, the area was settled by many European groups. Minneapolis was influenced by early Scandinavian and Lutheran settlers, while Saint Paul was settled predominantly by French, Irish, and German Catholic communities. Today, the cities are home to large immigrant communities, including Somali, Hmong, and Oromo groups.

"Twin Cities" is sometimes used to refer to the seven-county region governed by the Metropolitan Council regional governmental agency and planning organization. The Office of Management and Budget designates 15 counties as the "Minneapolis–St. Paul–Bloomington MN–WI Metropolitan Statistical Area". It had a population of 3,690,261 at the 2020 census. The larger 21-county Minneapolis–St. Paul MN–WI Combined Statistical Area, the nation's 16th-largest combined statistical area, had a population of 4,078,788 at the 2020 census.

History

thumb|[[St. Croix River (Wisconsin-Minnesota)|St. Croix River in Stillwater]]

thumb|[[Saint Paul, Minnesota|St. Paul with barges on the Mississippi River, the Capitol dome, and Minneapolis's skyline in the far background (right of St. Paul). In the lower right is a typical 19th century home in Indian Mounds Park.]]

European settlement

The first European settlement in the region was near what is now the town of Stillwater, Minnesota, about from downtown Saint Paul and on the western bank of the St. Croix River, which forms the border of central Minnesota and Wisconsin. Another settlement that fueled early interest in the area was the outpost at Fort Snelling, which was constructed from 1820 to 1825 at the confluence of the Minnesota River and the Mississippi River.

The Fort Snelling military reservation bordered both sides of the river up to Saint Anthony Falls. The town of Saint Anthony grew just outside the reservation on the river's east side. For several years, the only European resident to live on the west bank of the river was Colonel John H. Stevens, who operated a ferry service across the river. When the military reservation was reduced in size, settlers quickly moved to the land, creating the new village of Minneapolis. The town grew, with Minneapolis and Saint Anthony eventually merging. On the eastern side of the Mississippi, a few villages such as Pig's Eye and Lambert's Landing grew to become Saint Paul.

2025-2026

Operation Metro Surge, a Department of Homeland Security operation involving the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and US Customs and Border Protection, began in December 2025, focused on detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants. Initially targeting Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Grassroots activists took trainings to observe and record ICE actions. In January 2026, ICE officers killed Renée Good in Minneapolis; later in the month, Border Patrol agents killed Alex Pretti. Tens of thousands engaged in mostly peaceful protests. Legal challenges were filed to stop the large-scale deployment of ICE agents.

Geography

Natural geography played a role in the two cities' settlement and development. The Mississippi River Valley in the area is defined by a series of stone bluffs that line the river. Saint Paul grew up around Lambert's Landing, the last place to unload boats coming upriver at an easily accessible point, downstream from Saint Anthony Falls, the geographic feature that, due to the value of its immense water power for industry, defined Minneapolis's location and its prominence as the Mill City. The falls can be seen from the Mill City Museum, housed in the former Washburn "A" Mill, which was among the world's largest mills in its time. The phrase "St. Paul is the last city of the East, Minneapolis the first city of the West" alludes to the historical difference.

Farming

thumb|right|[[Lock and Dam No. 1, Mississippi River|Lock and Dam No. 1 on the Mississippi River upstream from the Minnesota River]]

The state's oldest farms are in Washington County. The county borders the St. Croix River and Wisconsin on the eastern side of the metropolitan area. Joseph Haskell was Minnesota's first white farmer, harvesting the first crops in the state in 1840 on what is now part of Afton Township on Trading Post Trail.

Grand Excursion

The Grand Excursion, a trip into the Upper Midwest sponsored by the Rock Island Railroad, brought more than a thousand curious travelers into the area by rail and steamboat in 1854. In 1855, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published The Song of Hiawatha, an epic poem based on the Ojibwe legends of Hiawatha. A number of natural area landmarks appear in the story, including Lake Minnetonka and Minnehaha Falls. Tourists inspired by the coverage of the Grand Excursion in eastern newspapers and those who read The Song of Hiawatha flocked to the area in the following decades.

Rail transport

At one time, the region had numerous passenger rail services, including both interurban streetcar systems and interstate rail. Due to the river's width at points farther south, the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area was briefly one of the few places where the Mississippi could be crossed by railroad. Much commercial rail traffic also ran through the area, often carrying grain to be processed at Minneapolis mills or delivering other goods to Saint Paul to be transported along the Mississippi. Saint Paul was long at the head of navigation on the river, until a lock and dam facility was added upriver in Minneapolis.

Passenger travel hit its peak in 1888, with nearly eight million traversing to and from Saint Paul Union Depot. This amounted to approximately 150 trains daily. Soon, other rail crossings were built farther south and travel through the region began to decline. In an effort by the rail companies to combat the rise of the automobile, some of the earliest streamliners ran from Chicago to Minneapolis/Saint Paul and eventually served distant points in the Pacific Northwest. Today, this interstate service is served by Amtrak's Seattle/Portland-to-Chicago Empire Builder route, running once daily in each direction, and supplemented by the route to Chicago. The Empire Builder is named after James J. Hill, a railroad tycoon who settled on Summit Avenue in Saint Paul in what is now known as the James J. Hill House.

Socioeconomic history

Like many northern cities that came of age during the Industrial Revolution, Minneapolis and St. Paul experienced shifts in their economic base as heavy industry and manufacturing jobs shifted to the South or abroad, especially in the 1960s and 1970s. With the economic nadir of those decades came a population decline in the central city areas, white flight to suburbs, and, in 1967, race riots on Minneapolis's North Side. But by the 1980s and 1990s, Minneapolis and Saint Paul were often cited as former Rust Belt cities that had made successful transitions to service, high-technology, finance, and information economies.

In May and June 2020, the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area became a focus of international attention after MPD officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for almost ten minutes. The murder sparked local, nationwide and international protests against racism and police brutality, bringing considerable attention to the MPD. Minneapolis–Saint Paul was the site of the second-costliest act of civil disobedience in U.S. history, after the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. Local protests and riots caused an estimated $550 million in damages and affected around 1,600 businesses.

Rivalry

Minneapolis and Saint Paul have competed since they were founded, resulting in some duplication of effort. After Saint Paul completed its elaborate cathedral in 1915, Minneapolis followed up with the equally ornate Basilica of St. Mary in 1926. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the rivalry became so intense that an architect practicing in one city was often refused business in the other. The 1890 United States census even led to the two cities arresting and/or kidnapping each other's census takers, in an attempt to keep each city from outgrowing the other.

The rivalry occasionally erupted into inter-city violence, as at a 1929 game between the Minneapolis Millers and the St. Paul Saints, both baseball teams of the American Association. In the 1950s, both cities competed for a major league baseball franchise (which resulted in two rival stadiums being built), and there was a brief period in the mid-1960s when the two cities could not agree on a common calendar for daylight saving time, resulting in a few weeks when people in Minneapolis were one hour "behind" those in Saint Paul.

The cities' mutual antagonism was largely healed by the end of the 1960s, aided by the simultaneous arrival in 1961 of the Minnesota Twins of the American League and the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League, both of which identified themselves with the state as a whole (the former explicitly named for both Twin Cities) rather than either city (like the earlier Minneapolis Lakers). Since 1961, it has been common practice for any major sports team based in the Twin Cities to be named for Minnesota as a whole. In terms of development, the two cities remain distinct in their progress, with Minneapolis absorbing new and avant-garde architecture while Saint Paul continues to carefully integrate new buildings into the context of classical and Victorian styles. But due to their southern location in the state and the urban heat island, the Twin Cities are among Minnesota's warmest places. The average annual temperature recorded at the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport is ; colder than Winona, Minnesota, and warmer than Roseau, Minnesota. Monthly average daily high temperatures range from in January to in July; the average daily minimum temperatures for those months are and respectively.

thumb|Viewing the [[Saint Paul Winter Carnival parade in January.]]

Minimum temperatures of or lower are seen on an average of 29.7 days per year, and 76.2 days do not have a maximum temperature exceeding the freezing point. Temperatures above occur an average of 15 times per year. Higher temperatures at or above are recorded once every 4–5 years on average, and sometimes more than one day during a single summer. The lowest temperature ever reported at the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport was on January 22, 1936; the highest, , was reported on July 14 of the same year. Early settlement records at Fort Snelling show temperatures as low as . Recent records include at Vadnais Lake on February 2, 1996 (National Climatic Data Center).

Precipitation averages per year, and is most plentiful in June () and least so in February (). The greatest one-day rainfall amount was , reported on July 23, 1987. The cities' record for lowest annual precipitation was set in 1910, when fell throughout the year; coincidentally, the opposite record of was set the next year. At an annual average of , snowfall is generally abundant.

The Twin Cities area takes the brunt of many types of extreme weather, including high-speed straight-line winds, tornadoes, flash floods, drought, heat, bitter cold, and blizzards. The costliest weather disaster in Twin Cities history was a derecho event on May 15, 1998. Hail and wind damage exceeded $950 million, much of it in the Twin Cities. Other memorable Twin Cities weather-related events include the tornado outbreak on May 6, 1965, the Armistice Day Blizzard on November 11, 1940, and the Halloween Blizzard of 1991. In January 2019, Minnesota experienced its coldest temperatures since 1996, when a polar vortex dropped temperatures as low as in Cotton, Minnesota, with wind-chill temperatures lower than in much of the state. These temperatures are colder than those found on the surface of Mars. (See: Department of Natural Resources - Cold Outbreak: January 27-31, 2019)

A normal growing season in the metro extends from late April or early May through the month of October. The USDA places the area in the 4a plant hardiness zone.

Communities

Metropolitan Statistical Area

The Minneapolis–St. Paul–Bloomington MN–WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, or Twin Cities, includes 15 counties, of which 13 are in Minnesota and two in Wisconsin. The Minnesota portion accounts for almost two-thirds of Minnesota's population.

Note: Counties that are bolded are under jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Council. Counties that are italicized were added to the metropolitan area when the Office of Management and Budget revised its delineations of metropolitan statistical areas in 2013. Sibley County was included in the metropolitan statistical area from 2013 to September 2018.

[[File:Minneapolis-St. Paul-St. Cloud Combined Statistical Area.svg|thumb|Map of the 21 counties of the Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI Combined Statistical Area as of 2018.

|234x234px]]

{|class="wikitable sortable"

!County

!Seat

!2025 estimate

!2020 census

!Change

!Area

!Density

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|Hennepin

|Minneapolis

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|Ramsey

|Saint Paul

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|Dakota

|Hastings

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|Anoka

|Anoka

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|Washington

|Stillwater

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|Scott

|Shakopee

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|Wright

|Buffalo

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|Carver

|Chaska

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|Sherburne

|Elk River

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|St. Croix, WI

|Hudson

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|Chisago

|Center City

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|Isanti

|Cambridge

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|Pierce, WI

|Ellsworth

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|Le Sueur

|Le Center

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|Mille Lacs

|Milaca

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|- class=sortbottom style="background:#fbfbbb"

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Combined Statistical Area

The Minneapolis–St. Paul, MN–WI Combined Statistical Area is made up of 19 counties in Minnesota and two counties in Wisconsin. The statistical area includes two metropolitan areas and four micropolitan areas. As of the 2010 census, the CSA had a population of 3,682,928 (though a July 1, 2012 estimate placed it at 3,691,918). In 2013, the Owatonna Micropolitan Statistical Area was added.

{|class="wikitable sortable"

!Statistical Area

!2025 Estimate

!2020 Census

!Change

!Area

!Density

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|Minneapolis–St. Paul–Bloomington MN–WI Metropolitan Statistical Area

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|St. Cloud, MN Metropolitan Statistical Area (Stearns and Benton counties)

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|Faribault-Northfield, MN Micropolitan Statistical Area (Rice County)

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|Red Wing, MN Micropolitan Statistical Area (Goodhue County)

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|Owatonna, MN Micropolitan Statistical Area (Steele County)

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|Hutchinson, MN Micropolitan Statistical Area (McLeod County)

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|- class=sortbottom style="background:#fbfbbb"

|Total

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Note: Owatonna MSA was not part of CSA in 2010.

Cities and suburbs

There are approximately 218 incorporated municipalities in the Twin Cities metropolitan region. This includes census-designated places and villages in Wisconsin, but excludes unincorporated towns in Wisconsin, known as civil townships in other states. Population numbers are from the 2020 census.

Principal cities

  • Minneapolis (429,954)
  • Saint Paul (311,527)

Places with 50,000 to 99,999 inhabitants

  • Bloomington (89,987)
  • Brooklyn Park (86,478)
  • Plymouth (81,026)
  • Woodbury (75,102)
  • Maple Grove (70,253)
  • Blaine (70,222)
  • Lakeville (69,490)
  • Eagan (68,855)
  • Burnsville (64,317)
  • Eden Prairie (64,198)
  • Coon Rapids (63,599)
  • Apple Valley (56,374)
  • Minnetonka (53,781)
  • Edina (53,494)
  • St. Louis Park (50,010)

Places with 25,000 to 49,999 inhabitants

  • Shakopee (43,698)
  • Maplewood (42,088)
  • Cottage Grove (38,839)
  • Richfield (36,994)
  • Roseville (36,254)
  • Inver Grove Heights (35,801)
  • Brooklyn Center (33,782)
  • Andover (32,601)
  • Savage (32,465)
  • Fridley (29,590)
  • Oakdale (28,303)
  • Chaska (27,810)
  • Ramsey (27,646)
  • Prior Lake (27,617)
  • Shoreview (26,921)
  • Chanhassen (25,947)
  • Elk River (25,835)
  • Rosemount (25,650)

Places with 10,000 to 24,999 inhabitants

  • White Bear Lake (24,883)
  • Champlin (23,919)
  • Farmington (23,632)
  • New Brighton (23,454)
  • Crystal (23,330)
  • Golden Valley (22,552)
  • Hastings (22,154)
  • New Hope (21,986)
  • Columbia Heights (21,973)
  • Lino Lakes (21,399)
  • South St. Paul (20,759)
  • West St. Paul (20,615)
  • Forest Lake (20,611)
  • Otsego (19,956)
  • Stillwater (19,394)
  • Hopkins (19,079)
  • St. Michael (18,235)
  • Anoka (17,921)
  • Ham Lake (16,464)
  • River Falls, Wisconsin (16,182)
  • Buffalo (16,168)
  • Hugo (15,766)
  • Hudson, Wisconsin (14,755)
  • Robbinsdale (14,646)
  • Monticello (14,455)
  • Rogers (13,295)
  • Mounds View (13,249)
  • Waconia (13,033)
  • Vadnais Heights (12,912)
  • North St. Paul (12,364)
  • East Bethel (11,786)
  • Mendota Heights (11,744)
  • Big Lake (11,686)
  • Lake Elmo (11,335)
  • Little Canada (10,819)
  • North Branch (10,787)
  • Victoria (10,546)

Places with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants

  • Arden Hills (9,939)
  • Cambridge (9,611)
  • Mound (9,398)
  • St. Anthony (9,257)
  • Oak Grove (8,929)
  • Orono (8,315)
  • Minnetrista (8,262)
  • New Prague (8,162)
  • Saint Francis (8,142)
  • Mahtomedi (8,138)
  • Wyoming (8,032)
  • Albertville (7,896)
  • Shorewood (7,783)
  • Belle Plaine (7,395)
  • Dayton (7,262)
  • Spring Lake Park (7,188)
  • Medina (6,837)
  • Isanti (6,804)
  • Jordan (6,656)
  • Delano (6,484)
  • Zimmerman (6,189)
  • Corcoran (6,185)
  • Carver (5,839)
  • Chisago City (5,558)
  • Saint Paul Park (5,544)
  • Falcon Heights (5,369)
  • North Oaks (5,272)
  • Circle Pines (5,025)
  • Lindstrom (4,888)
  • Becker (4,877)
  • Oak Park Heights (4,849)
  • Elko New Market (4,846)
  • Princeton (4,819)
  • Lonsdale (4,686)
  • Watertown (4,659)
  • Nowthen (4,536)
  • Rockford (4,500)
  • Wayzata (4,434)
  • Prescott, Wisconsin (4,258)
  • Le Sueur (4,213)
  • Columbus (4,159)
  • Bayport (4,024)
  • Scandia (3,984)
  • Grant (3,966)
  • Deephaven (3,899)
  • Centerville (3,896)
  • Norwood Young America (3,863)
  • Newport (3,797)
  • Montrose (3,775)
  • Independence (3,755)
  • Hanover (3,548)
  • Annandale (3,330)
  • Montgomery (3,249)
  • Rush City (3,072)
  • Afton (2,955)
  • Greenfield (2,923)
  • Milaca (2,901)
  • Cokato (2,799)
  • Osseo (2,688)
  • Le Center (2,517)
  • Mayer (2,453)
  • Excelsior (2,355)
  • St. Bonifacius (2,307)
  • Lauderdale (2,271)
  • Lexington (2,248)
  • Maple Lake (2,159)
  • Howard Lake (2,071)
  • Cologne (2,047)
  • Clearwater (1,855)
  • Waterville (1,849)
  • Braham (1,820)
  • Maple Plain (1,743)
  • Long Lake (1,741)
  • Spring Park (1,734)
  • Lakeland (1,710)
  • Stacy (1,470)
  • Tonka Bay (1,442)
  • Waverly (1,410)
  • Dellwood (1,171)
  • Shafer (1,142)
  • Harris (1,111)
  • Taylors Falls (1,055)
  • Lake St. Croix Beach (1,043)
  • Vineland (1,001)
  • Hilltop (958)
  • Onamia (878)
  • Birchwood Village (863)
  • Landfall (843)
  • Lilydale (809)
  • Loretto (762)
  • Isle (751)
  • Greenwood (726)
  • Kasota (718)
  • Cleveland (700)
  • Hampton (687)
  • Center City (672)
  • Marine on St. Croix (664)
  • Elysian (650)
  • Clear Lake (573)
  • Gem Lake (567)
  • Hamburg (566)
  • Foreston (559)
  • Minnetonka Beach (546)
  • Sunfish Lake (522)
  • Willernie (515)
  • Bethel (476)
  • Randolph (466)
  • New Germany (464)
  • Vermillion (441)
  • Woodland (439)
  • Pine Springs (377)
  • Lakeland Shores (339)
  • Medicine Lake (337)
  • St. Marys Point (321)
  • Wahkon (256)
  • Pease (248)
  • South Haven (192)
  • Mendota (157)
  • Kilkenny (148)
  • Coates (147)
  • Miesville (138)
  • Heidelberg (137)
  • Bock (104)
  • New Trier (86)

Culture

Fine and performing arts

thumb|right|[[Guthrie Theater on the Mississippi River in Minneapolis]]

The Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area fine art museums include the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Walker Art Center, the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minnesota Museum of American Art and The Museum of Russian Art. Other museums include American Swedish Institute, Science Museum of Minnesota, Minnesota Children's Museum, Bell Museum (natural history and planetarium) and The Bakken Museum (science and technology). The Minnesota Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra are full-time professional musical ensembles. The Guthrie Theater is a world-class regional theater overlooking the Mississippi River. The Minnesota Fringe Festival is an annual celebration of theatre, dance, improvisation, puppetry, kids' shows, visual art, and musicals.

The Twin Cities is also the home of Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), the nation's second-largest public radio station. It has both a classical station and a contemporary station, The Current, which plays music from regional and other contemporary artists. The MPR program A Prairie Home Companion, hosted by Minnesota native Garrison Keillor, aired live for many years from the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul. The show ended its run in 2016, with its successor Live from Here also airing from the same venue. This radio program was the basis of the 2006 film A Prairie Home Companion.

The Brave New Workshop Comedy Theater is a sketch and improvisational comedy theater in Minneapolis. It is the nation's oldest comedy theater.

The Current and the Walker Art Center host the annual music festival Rock the Garden, which features nationally recognized and local artists. The festival has been held annually since 2008 and has featured artists such as Lizzo, Hippo Campus, Chance the Rapper, Bon Iver, The Flaming Lips, Wilco and Sonic Youth.

The Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis hosts the annual Basilica Block Party, another music festival, which has featured nationally recognized artists such as Weezer, Andy Grammer, Death Cab for Cutie and Panic! at the Disco. The festival is used as a fundraiser for the restoration of the basilica. The event draws about 25,000 people to the downtown area.

The Twin Cities area has a number of venues where artists come to perform. Minneapolis is home to First Avenue. First Avenue is known for being the starting venue for many famous artists and bands from the area, including Prince, The Replacements, Atmosphere, and Manny Phesto. It became one of the most recognizable venues in Minnesota after the release of the Prince movie Purple Rain, in which it is featured.

Outdoors

thumb|left|A Saint Paul Bouncing Team aerialist exhibition in [[Saint Paul, Minnesota|St. Paul]]

There are numerous lakes in the region, and some cities in the area have extensive park systems for recreation. Organized recreation includes the Great River Energy bicycle festival, the Twin Cities Marathon, and the U.S. pond hockey championships. Some studies have shown that area residents take advantage of this, and are among the most physically fit in the country, but others have disputed that. Medicine is a major industry in the region and the southeasterly city of Rochester, as the University of Minnesota has joined other colleges and hospitals in doing significant research, and major medical device manufacturers started in the region (the most prominent is Medtronic). Technical innovators have brought important advances in computing, including the Cray line of supercomputers.

Many Twin Cities residents own or share cabins and other properties along lakes and forested areas in central and northern Minnesota, and weekend trips "up North" happen in the warmer months. Ice fishing is a major winter pastime, although overambitious fishers sometimes find themselves in danger when they venture onto the ice too early or too late. Hunting, snowmobiling, ATV riding and other outdoor activities are also popular. This connection to the outdoors also brings a strong sense of environmentalism to many Minnesotans.

In 2011 and 2012, the American College of Sports Medicine named Minneapolis–Saint Paul the nation's healthiest metropolitan area.

Sports

thumb|right|300px|upright=2|The 1905 [[Minneapolis Millers baseball team]]

The Twin Cities is one of 12 American metropolitan areas with teams in all four major professional sports—baseball (MLB), football (NFL), basketball (NBA) and ice hockey (NHL). Including Major League Soccer (MLS), it is one of 11 metro areas with five major professional sports teams. To avoid favoring either city, most teams based in the area use only the word "Minnesota" in their names, rather than "Minneapolis" or "St. Paul".

Minneapolis was the site of two Super Bowls—Super Bowl XXVI in 1992 and Super Bowl LII in 2018. It is the farthest north that a Super Bowl has ever been played. The Minnesota Vikings have played in four Super Bowls—IV in 1970, VIII in 1974, IX in 1975 and XI in 1977.

The World Series has been played in the Twin Cities three times—1965, 1987 and 1991—as have three Major League Baseball All-Star Games—1965, 1985 and 2014. NHL All-Star games were hosted in 1972 and 2004, NBA All-Star game in 1994, WNBA All-Star game in 2018 and MLS All-Star game in 2022.

The Stanley Cup Final has been played in the Twin Cities twice, in 1981 and 1991. The NHL Stadium Series had a game in the Twin Cities in 2016, and the NHL Winter Classic was played at Target Field in 2022.

The Final Four Men's National College Athletics Association (NCAA) basketball tournament has been hosted by Minneapolis four times—1951, 1992, 2001 and 2019—and the Women's twice, in 1995 and 2022.

The Frozen Four Men's NCAA hockey tournament has been hosted by the Twin Cities nine times—1958, 1966, 1989, 1991, 1994, 2002, 2011, 2018 and 2024.

thumb|left|Over 3,700 fans attend the opening bout of the 2007 [[Minnesota RollerGirls season]]

Major golf tournaments hosted in the Twin Cities include: U.S. Open—1916, 1930, 1970, 1991; U.S. Women's Open—1966, 1977, 2008; PGA Championship—1932, 1954, 2002, 2009; Women's PGA Championship, 2019; Walker Cup, 1957; Solheim Cup, 2002; and the Ryder Cup, 2016. The Ryder Cup is scheduled to return in 2028.

The 1998 World Figure Skating Championships were held at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

The 2017, 2018 and 2019 X Games were held in Minneapolis. The 2020 X Games were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Twin Cities host three nationally competing Roller Derby leagues: the Minnesota Roller Derby of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association Division 1, the North Star Roller Derby of WFTDA Division 2, and Minnesota Men's Roller Derby, a league of the Men's Roller Derby Association. MNRD and NSRD have four home teams each: the Dagger Dolls, Garda Belts, Rockits, and Atomic Bombshells of MNRD and the Banger Sisters, Delta Delta Di, Kilmores, and Violent Femmes of NSRD, as well as two traveling teams each. MMRD has three home teams: The Gentlemen's Club, Destruction Workers, and Thunderjacks, and two traveling teams.

The annual Twin Cities Marathon is held in the fall with a course running through Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Minneapolis was the birthplace of Rollerblade and is a center for inline skating, as well as home to the most golfers per capita of any U.S. city. Additionally, water skiing got its start on Lake Pepin, a lake southeast of the metropolitan area, in the Mississippi River about downstream from Saint Paul.

Some other sports teams gained their names from being in Minnesota before relocating. The Los Angeles Lakers get their name from once being based in Minneapolis, the City of Lakes. The Dallas Stars also derived their name from their tenure as a Minnesota team, the Minnesota North Stars.

Professional sports teams in Minneapolis–Saint Paul

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|-

!Club

!Sport

!League

!Venue

!City

!Since

!Titles

|-

|Minnesota Twins

|Baseball

|American League<br>Major League Baseball

|Target Field

| Minneapolis

|1961

| 1987, 1991

|-

|St. Paul Saints

|Baseball

|International League<br>Minor League Baseball

|CHS Field

| St. Paul

|1993–2005 <br/>2006-2020 <br/>2021

|1993, 1995, 1996, 2004 <br/> 2019

|-

|Minnesota Vikings

|American football

|National Football League

|U.S. Bank Stadium

| Minneapolis

|1961

| 1969

|-

|Minnesota Vixen

|American football

|Women's Football Alliance

|Sea Foam Stadium

|St. Paul

|1999

|

|-

|Minnesota Timberwolves

|Basketball

|National Basketball Association

|Target Center

| Minneapolis

|1989

|

|-

|Minnesota Lynx

|Basketball

|Women's National Basketball Association

| Target Center

| Minneapolis

|1999

| 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017

|-

|Minnesota Wild

|Ice hockey

|National Hockey League

|Grand Casino Arena

| St. Paul

|2000

|

|-

|Minnesota Frost

|Ice hockey

|Professional Women's Hockey League

| Grand Casino Arena

| St. Paul

|2023

|2024, 2025

|-

|Minnesota United FC

|Soccer

|Major League Soccer

|Allianz Field

| St. Paul

|2011–2016 <br>2017

|2011

|-

|Minnesota Aurora FC

|Soccer

|USL W League

|TCO Stadium

| Eagan

|2021

|-

|MLV Minnesota

|Volleyball

|Major League Volleyball

| Grand Casino Arena

| St. Paul

|2027

|

|-

|}

The Twin Cities are also home of the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers who play in the Big Ten Conference.

Media

Print

The Twin Cities have two major daily newspapers: The Minnesota Star Tribune and the Saint Paul Pioneer Press. The Minnesota Daily serves the University of Minnesota's Twin Cities campus and surrounding neighborhoods. There is one general-interest neighborhood weekly newspaper still in the cities: The East Side Review, devoted to the 90,000 residents in St. Paul's eastern third. Other weekly papers are devoted to specific audiences/demographics, including (until 2020) City Pages.

Television

thumb|left|[[KARE (TV)|KARE television broadcast, Minnesota State Fair]]

The region is the 15th-largest television market, according to Nielsen Media Research. Three duopolies exist in the Twin Cities: Twin Cities PBS operates KTCA and KTCI (channels 2.1 and 2.4), Saint Paul-based Hubbard Broadcasting (founded by Stanley E. Hubbard) owns ABC affiliate KSTP-TV (channel 5) and independent station KSTC-TV (channel 5.2), and Fox Television Stations operates Fox owned-and-operated station KMSP-TV (channel 9) and MyNetworkTV O&O WFTC (channel 9.2). Diversified from radio, KSTP-TV was the first television station to operate in the region and the 17th to sign on in the U.S., initially reaching 3,000 sets when Hubbard signed on the station in April 1948.

thumb|[[WCCO-TV building in Minneapolis.]]

Two local television stations in the area operate their main studios in Minneapolis: CBS O&O WCCO-TV (channel 4) and CW affiliate WUCW (channel 23, owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group). Saint Paul is home to KSTP/KSTC and KTCA/KTCI. The other major television stations are based in nearby suburban areas: NBC affiliate KARE (channel 11, owned by Tegna) operates a broadcasting complex in Golden Valley, while KMSP/WFTC operates from a facility in Eden Prairie.

For much of the last two decades, WCCO and KARE have had the most popular evening newscasts in the area, while KSTP has struggled to maintain decent ratings on its news programs. Since becoming an independent station in 1979, after losing the ABC affiliation to KSTP in a three-station affiliation swap that resulted in NBC moving from KSTP to then-independent WTCN (now KARE), KMSP has carried a nightly prime time newscast (originally airing at 9:30&nbsp;p.m. before moving to 9:00&nbsp;p.m. upon trading time slots with the now-canceled Independent Network News in 1982). It remained the top-rated newscast in the 9:00 hour long after it gained competition from then-Fox affiliate WFTC (which launched a standalone news department in April 2001, later absorbed into KMSP's existing news operation after Fox acquired both stations that year from Clear Channel Television and United Television, respectively) and independent KSTC (which began airing a newscast produced by sister station KSTP in 2001).

Communities in the region have their own public, educational, and government access (PEG) cable television channels. One, the Metro Cable Network, is available on channel 6 on cable systems across the seven-county region.

Several television programs that originated in the Twin Cities have aired nationally on broadcast and cable networks. KTCA created the science program Newton's Apple and distributes a children's program today. A few unusual comedic shows also originated in the area. In the 1980s, KTMA (later KLGT and KMWB, now WUCW) created a number of low-budget shows, including Mystery Science Theater 3000, a satirical B-movie showcase that achieved cult classic status during its 1989–96 national cable run on Comedy Central. The short-lived Let's Bowl started on KARE and later ran on KLGT and St. Cloud-licensed KXLI-TV (channel 41, now Ion O&O KPXM-TV), before airing on Comedy Central from 2001 to 2002; it was a panel discussion featuring critical and humorous analysis of TV commercials. The advertising-focused panel discussion series Mental Engineering originated on the Saint Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN) cable access channel in 1997 before being syndicated nationally to PBS member stations from 2001 to 2008.

From 1984 to 2002, Hubbard Broadcasting and Viacom operated CONUS Communications, a satellite news gathering and news video-sharing service for local television stations throughout the nation. In 1989, the venture launched All News Channel (ANC), a syndicated television news service that operated from the company's St. Paul broadcast facility and used some on-air staff previously employed by KSTP. Similar in format to then-competitor CNN Headline News (now HLN), ANC produced rolling half-hour national newscasts that were syndicated to local stations (most of which, as KSTP did throughout its existence, aired them as overnight filler programming); Hubbard shut down most of CONUS's operations and ANC in 2002, citing the dominance of network-run affiliate wire services (such as CNN Newsource), but it maintains a digital archive of its news library.

In 1994, Hubbard launched United States Satellite Broadcasting (USSB), a satellite television provider offering premium channels from Home Box Office, Inc. and Showtime Networks, pay-per-view movies and events, a limited selection of basic cable channels (mainly those in which Viacom held full or partial ownership interest, such as MTV, Lifetime and Nickelodeon), and All News Channel. Founded in 1981 by then-Hubbard President Stanley S. Hubbard, USSB and competitor DirecTV used the Digital Satellite System (DSS) infrastructure, allowing customers to optionally subscribe to both services. Hubbard sold USSB's assets to then-DirecTV parent Hughes Electronics in 1999, leading the latter provider to add USSB's remaining channels. (Viacom moved its basic channels over to DirecTV the previous year.)

Radio

The Twin Cities radio market was ranked 15th by Nielsen in 2018. In November 2018, the area's top five morning radio shows were all FM stations: KSTP (94.5), KFXN (100.3), KQQL (107.9), KDWB (101.3), and KXXR (93.7). Three of those stations are owned by iHeartRadio. Most stations broadcast on air and online, as livestreams from their websites.

thumb|[[Minnesota Public Radio in St. Paul]]

In addition to owning KSTP television, Hubbard Broadcasting also operates two radio stations that share call letters (which reference their shared licensed city, St. Paul) with its co-owned television outlet: KSTP (1500 AM) maintains a sports radio format as an ESPN Radio affiliate, and KSTP-FM maintains a pop music format. In 1985, Hubbard—valued at $400 million—was one of the nation's larger corporate media companies; in 2005, valued at $1.2 billion, Hubbard was a fairly small major-market media operation.

The Twin Cities have a mix of commercial and non-commercial radio stations. The market is dominated by iHeartMedia, which operates seven stations (including contemporary hits outlet KDWB, sports radio outlet KFXN, classic hits outlet KQQL, and news/talk station KTLK). Multiple small, independent stations are award winners, including KUOM (770 AM; relayed in St. Paul on 100.7 FM and in Minneapolis on 104.5 FM), operated by the University of Minnesota, community radio outlet KFAI (90.3) in Cedar–Riverside, and African American-oriented community station KMOJ (89.9 FM) in North Minneapolis.

Minnesota Public Radio (MPR)—a regional public radio network that transmits on 46 affiliate stations across the state—broadcasts on three stations in the area, each with distinct programming formats: KNOW (91.1 FM) serves as the flagship station of MPR's news and information service, MPR News, featuring locally produced and NPR-distributed news and talk programs; KSJN (99.5 FM) serves as the flagship of MPR's classical music service, "YourClassical MPR"; and Northfield-licensed KCMP (89.3 FM) maintains an adult album alternative format branded as "The Current". (In addition to being relayed on MPR stations in Duluth and Rochester, KCMP's "Current" programming is also carried in the Los Angeles market on an HD subchannel of educational FM station KPCC.) MPR was first nationally known for the variety show A Prairie Home Companion, which ceased production in 2016. Doing business as American Public Media, the company is the second-largest producer of NPR content, after National Public Radio (of which MPR is an affiliate).

Independent media

The Twin Cities is home to many independent media organizations, including The UpTake and MinnPost.

Demographics

Population