Population & Geography
Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the United States — roughly 40% of all Somali Americans. Exactly how large depends on which official measure you use, so we show all of them.
How many Somali Minnesotans are there?
Three official measures, three answers. The Minnesota State Demographer recommends the broadest measure — “Somali alone or in any combination” — because many respondents skip the census ancestry question.
Broadest official measure. Recommended by the Minnesota State Demographer because many respondents skip the ancestry question. U.S. Census Bureau, 2024
Full-count census, now six years old. U.S. Census Bureau via Minnesota Reformer, 2020
Narrower measure; undercounts because the ancestry question is often skipped. U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year (2019–2023), 2019–23
The picture in brief
From newcomers to citizens
Share of Somali Minnesotans who are non-citizens
In two decades the community went from three-quarters non-citizens to 91% citizens — through naturalization and a generation born here. Nearly 58% of Somali Minnesotans today were born in the United States. ACS/IPUMS via Minnesota Reformer
Where they live
About 77% of Somali Minnesotans live in the Twin Cities metro area, anchored by Minneapolis's Cedar-Riverside neighborhood — long the symbolic heart of Somali America. But the community reaches across Greater Minnesota: St. Cloud, Rochester, Willmar, Marshall, and Faribault all have established Somali communities, several of them dating to the meatpacking jobs that first drew Somali workers to the state in the 1990s.
County figures use the narrower ACS 5-year measure and understate totals for the same reason the statewide 5-year figure does.