Facts about Minnesota

Demographics

Statehood: May 11, 1858, the 32nd state

Capital: St. Paul

Total Area: 12th among states, 225,181 sq km (86,943 sq mi)

Water Area: 18,974 sq km (7,326 sq mi)

Highest Point: Eagle Mountain, Cook Co, 701 m (2,301 ft)

Total Population: 21st among states
2010 census - 5,303,925

Population Density in 2010: 66.6 people per sq mi

Distribution in 2000: 69% Urban, 31% Rural

Economy:
Gross State Product - $267.1 billion (2010)
Personal income per Capita - $41,552 (2009)

Largest cities in 2010:
Minneapolis: 382,578
Saint Paul: 285,068
Rochester: 106,769

Only in the Metrodome has there been a Super Bowl, a World Series and a NCAA Final Four Basketball Championship.

The skyway system in Minneapolis allows people to live, eat, work and shop in nearly five miles without ever going outside.
During the winter of 1888, residents of St. Paul built an ice palace at the winter festival. Before melting, it was considered one of the largest buildings in the world, measuring 14 stories high and covering an acre of land.
The Mall of America in Bloomington is over 9.5 million square feet in size.
Because of its thousands of lakes, Minnesota has 90,000 miles of shoreline, more than California, Florida and Hawaii combined.
Minnesota claims homeland to the following inventions: Masking and Scotch tape, Wheaties, Bisquick, Aveda beauty products, the bundt pan, HMOs, Green Giant vegetables, and the Snickers candy bar.
The first library to have a Children’s department was the Minneapolis Public Library in 1889.
Northwest Airlines based out of Twin Cities, was the first major airline to ban smoking on international flights.
Minnesota is home to the first automatic pop-up toaster, the first canned ham, Spam, Greyhound Lines (the first bus line), and Tonka Trucks.
Between the 1860s and the early 1900s Minnesota was the leading lumber-producing state.
The low rocky ridges, or ranges, of northern Minnesota that contain iron ore are located in the region known as the Superior Upland.
Lake Itasca, the source of the Mississippi River, was discovered and named by Henry R. Schoolcraft in 1832.
Minneapolis and Saint Paul became major cities partly thanks to French immigrant engineer Edmund La Croix, a resident of the area who perfected a device to purify white flour in the early 1870s.