The economy of Minnesota produced US$472 billion of gross domestic product in 2023. Minnesota headquartered 15 Fortune 500 companies in 2023, the largest of which were UnitedHealth Group (5th) and Target (33rd). The per capita personal income in 2022 was $60,785, ranking ninth in the nation. The median household income in 2023 was $82,338.
Industry and commerce
Minnesota's economy has transformed in the past 200 years from one based on raw materials to one based on finished products and services.
The earliest industries were fur trading and agriculture. Agriculture is still a major part of the economy even though only a small percentage of the population, less than 1%, are employed in the farming industry.
In the Blufflands, cheese, wine, honey, milk, apples, and maple syrup are produced.
Minnesota is the U.S.'s largest producer of sugar beets, sweet corn, and green peas for processing and farm-raised turkeys. State agribusiness has changed from production to processing and the manufacturing of value-added food products by companies such as General Mills, Cargill, Hormel Foods Corporation (prepackaged and processed meat products), and the McDonald Food Company.
Manufacturing was not left out. The brass era automobile maker Dan Patch was founded in Minneapolis in 1911.Named for the horse. Clymer, Floyd. Treasury of Early American Automobiles, 1877–1925 (New York: Bonanza Books, 1950), p.158.
Retail is represented by Target Corporation, Best Buy, and Supervalu, all headquartered in the Twin Cities. Southdale Center, the first fully enclosed and completely climate-controlled shopping mall in the United States opened on October 8, 1956, in the suburban city of Edina. The largest shopping mall in the United States, the Mall of America, is located in Bloomington.
St. Jude Medical represents a growing biomedical industry spawned by university research, and Rochester is the headquarters of the world-famous Mayo Clinic. UnitedHealth Group is the second largest health insurance company in the U.S.
Financial institutions include U.S. Bancorp, Ameriprise and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.
As might be expected in state with a love of the outdoors, boats and other recreational products are manufactured by a number of Minnesota companies, including Polaris Industries and Arctic Cat, who make snowmobiles and ATVs, Alumacraft Boat Company, and Lund Boats.
Today, the most salient characteristic of the economy is its diversity; the relative outputs of its business sectors closely match the United States as a whole.
Mining Mining plays a significant role in Minnesota’s economy, particularly in the northeastern region known as the Iron Range. The state is the largest producer of iron ore in the United States, primarily through the mining and processing of taconite, a low-grade iron ore that requires pelletizing before shipment. Mining operations are concentrated on the Mesabi Range, with additional activity on the Vermilion and Cuyuna Range.
Companies currently operating large-scale taconite facilities include Cleveland-Cliffs, which owns and operates the United Taconite and Northshore Mining plants, and United States Steel, which operates the Minntac and Keetac facilities. ArcelorMittal manages the Minorca Mine near Virginia.
Most mined ore is shipped by rail to ports in Duluth, Two Harbors, and Superior, Wisconsin, where it is loaded onto bulk freighters for transport to steel mills in the Great Lakes region. Employment in the mining sector has declined over time due to mechanization and consolidation, but the industry remains one of the largest sources of high-wage jobs in northeastern Minnesota.
Forestry Forestry remains an active component of Minnesota's resource economy, especially in the northern part of the state. The forest products industry includes logging, pulpwood processing, engineered wood production, and paper manufacturing. According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, approximately 17 million acres of forest land cover the state, with a mix of public, tribal, and private ownership.
Minnesota’s timber industry supports both primary manufacturing (such as sawmills and veneer production) and secondary manufacturing (including cabinetry, furniture, and packaging). Sustainable forestry practices, including selective harvesting and replanting, are regulated at both the state and federal level.
Mesabi Metallics Mesabi Metallics, a proposed mining and pelletizing facility near Nashwauk, represents the largest private business investment in Minnesota in recent decades. Currently, Mesabi Metallics reports 1.8 billion dollars in private development to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. The project, located on a former Essar Steel site, has been the subject of prolonged legal and financial disputes, but resumed construction in 2024 under new management. It reported being on track to begin commercial operation in the first quarter of 2026.
The facility is designed to produce high-grade taconite pellets for the domestic steel industry, with potential plans for direct-reduced iron (DRI) capabilities. When completed, the project is expected to support hundreds of construction jobs and more than 300 permanent positions. The site spans over 3,200 acres and includes both a mine and a processing plant.
State and local officials have emphasized the economic importance of the project for St. Louis County, Itasca County, and the broader Mesabi Iron Range.
The digital state
Minnesota attracted entrepreneurs and engineers, especially in the computer industry, and became a leading center of computer manufacturing after the war."Solid State: Minnesota's High-Tech History" https://www.tpt.org/solid-state/ (Twin Cities PBS 2019). Engineering Research Associates was formed in 1946 to develop computers for the Navy and the intelligence agencies. It merged with Remington Rand, and soon became a division of Sperry Rand.Arthur Norberg, Computers and Commerce: A Study of Technology and Management at Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company, Engineering Research Associates, and Remington Rand, 1946-1957 (MIT Press 2005). William Norris, Seymour Cray, and others left Sperry in 1957 to form Control Data Corporation (CDC).Control Data Corporation Records at Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. Cray Research was formed when Cray left CDC to form his own company. "Minnesota was the undisputed epicenter of top-secret digital computing for decades."Kevin Dragseth, "How MN Became the Land of 10,000 Top-Secret Computer Projects" https://www.tptoriginals.org/how-mn-became-the-land-of-10000-top-secret-computer-projects/ pointing to TPT's 2019 documentary Solid State: Minnesota’s High-Tech History Medical device maker Medtronic also was founded in the Twin Cities in 1949. Honeywell was a national force in computing until selling its computer division to Groupe Bull in 1989, remaining a prominent military and aerospace concern headquartered in Minnesota until 1999 when, after a merger, it moved to New Jersey. National firms, such as International Business Machines, moved manufacturing and R&D operations to Minnesota. State government and powerful politicians such as Hubert Humphrey maintained a favorable climate. The Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium brought state-wide networked computing in the 1970s and developed educational software such as the popular Oregon Trail game. The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis combined computing power with financial clout across its region from Montana to upper Michigan. The University of Minnesota trained many computer specialists who decided to stay in the Minnesota rather than move to California. Minnesota thus preceded the better-known industrial districts of Route 128 around Boston and Silicon Valley.Thomas J. Misa, Digital State: The Story of Minnesota's Computing Industry (2013) JSTOR An active high-technology sector is represented today by Alliant Techsystems, Ceridian, Cray, Digi International, Digital River, Geek Squad, Hutchinson Technology, Imation, IBM Rochester, Lawson Software, MacSoft, Medtronic, MTS Systems, St. Jude Medical, Stratasys, SPS Commerce, 3M, and more than 400 smaller software companies.
Minnesota's largest companies
Nonprofits The following table lists the Minnesota-based non-profit organizations among the largest 400 in the U.S. by 2006 private donations.
State rankby revenue Name Nationalrank Donations ($ millions) 2006 estimate Headquarters city 1 Mayo Clinic 45 265.9 Rochester 2 University of Minnesota 46 265.4 Minneapolis 3 Scholarship America 114 136.2 St. Peter 4 Minnesota Public Radio 378 40.3 St. Paul 5 Hope for the City 379 40.3 Edina
Private companies The following table lists the privately held companies headquartered in Minnesota with 2007 revenues over $1 billion.
State rankby revenue Name Nationalrank Revenue ($ billions) 2007 estimate Employees Headquarters city Known for 1 Cargill 1 107.90 131,000 Minnetonka Farm products 2 Carlson 87 38.00 170,000 Minnetonka Travel and lodging 3 Schwan Food Company 124 3.30 17,000 Marshall Dairy products and frozen foods 4 Andersen Corporation 136 3.00 10,600 Bayport Windows and building materials 5 Rosen's Diversified 184 2.40 4,200 Fairmont Meat products 6 M A Mortenson 218 2.14 2,700 Robbinsdale Heavy construction 7 Fagen 227 2.08 3,600 Granite Falls Heavy construction 8 Holiday Cos. 238 2.00 4,600 Bloomington Retailing 9 Taylor Corp. 286 1.70 12,500 North Mankato Publishing – periodicals 10 Ceridian 295 1.65 9,500 Bloomington Information technology services 11 Buffets, Inc. 334 1.46 38,000 Eagan Restaurants 12 API Group 351 1.35 6,000 New Brighton Conglomerates 13 Lifetouch 424 1.05 20,000 Eden Prairie Photography 14 Ryan Companies 427 1.04 600 Minneapolis Heavy construction
Public companies The following table lists the public companies headquartered in Minnesota with 2010 revenues placing them in the 1000 largest U.S. companies.
State rankby revenue Company name Nationalrank Revenue ($millions) 2010 estimate Headquarters city Known for 1 UnitedHealth Group 6 184,840 Minnetonka Managed health care 2 Target 33 67,390 Minneapolis Retailing 3 Best Buy 47 49,694 Richfield Retailing 4 Supervalu 61 40,597 Eden Prairie Food distribution and retailing 5 3M 97 26,692 Maplewood Diversified manufacturing 6 CHS, Inc. 103 25,268 Inver Grove Heights Fuel distribution 7 US Bancorp 126 20,518 Headquarters in Minneapolis, domiciled in Delaware Banking and finance 8 General Mills 166 14,796 Golden Valley Food processing9 Land O' Lakes 218 11,146 Arden Hills Dairy products10 Xcel Energy 237 10,311 Minneapolis Electricity production and distribution11 Ameriprise 246 10,046 Minneapolis Financial planning12 C.H. Robinson Worldwide 265 9,274 Eden Prairie Logistic services13 Thrivent Financial for Lutherans 318 7,471 Minneapolis Financial products14 Hormel Foods 325 7,221 Austin Meat processing15 Mosaic 346 6,759 Plymouth Fertilizer manufacturing16 Ecolab 378 6,090 St. Paul Sanitation supplier17 St. Jude Medical 436 5,165 Little Canada Medical devices18 Nash Finch 449 4,992 Edina Food distribution19 Alliant Techsystems 472 4,808 Eden Prairie Defense contractor20 Valspar 618 3,482 Minneapolis Paint and coatings21 Pentair 627 3,395 Golden Valley Water treatment22 Patterson 687 2,999 Eagan Dental and veterinarian supplies23 Securian/Minnesota Life 729 2,746 St. Paul Life insurance24 Regis 730 2,739 Edina Hair salons25 Fastenal 813 2,340 Winona Fastener manufacturer26 Donaldson 836 2,233 Bloomington Filtration products27 Imation 860 2,155 Oakdale Data storage products28 Polaris Industries 911 1,948 Medina Snowmobiles and ATVs29 Toro 936 1,878 Bloomington Lawn and irrigation equipment30 Michael Foods 961 1,804 Minnetonka Packaged foods
By employment in Minnesota As of 2025, Minnesota's largest employers were: