Minneapolis Map
Minneapolis grew at the one waterfall on the Mississippi, which is both the end of navigation and the power that ran the mills — about 429,000 residents in 2024.
Where is Minneapolis?
Minneapolis is in east-central Minnesota, on both banks of the Mississippi River, with St. Paul immediately downstream — the two cities share a boundary about 10 miles from center to center. Duluth and Lake Superior are some 155 miles northeast; Milwaukee is about 340 miles southeast and Chicago roughly 410 miles in the same direction.
Minneapolis at a glance
| State | Minnesota |
| County | Hennepin County |
| Population | 428,579 (2024 Census estimate) |
| Rank among US cities | No. 46 of the 100 largest |
| Time zone | Central Time |
| Region | Midwest (West North Central division) |
Another 14,975 residents would lift Minneapolis past Oakland into No. 45; 11,111 fewer would put it behind Bakersfield at No. 47. St. Paul is the only other Minnesota city on the list. Against Minnesota's 5.79 million residents, though, that is only about 7%. It holds about 34% of Hennepin County's 1,273,334 residents.
Minneapolis in Minnesota
Hennepin County holds Minneapolis and is the most populous of Minnesota's 87 counties, with Ramsey County and St. Paul adjoining it to the east — the Minnesota county map shows the two small urban counties against the large, thinly settled ones in the north. St. Paul, not Minneapolis, is the state capital, which is why the capitals map marks the smaller of the two. The Minnesota state page takes in the Iron Range, the lakes and the prairie edge.
St. Anthony Falls and the milling city
The Falls of St. Anthony are the only true waterfall on the whole Mississippi, and steamboats coming upriver could go no further — so the city that used the water power grew above the falls and the city that handled the boats grew below them. The falls were eroding upstream so fast that a concrete apron was laid over the limestone lip in the 1870s to stop them destroying themselves. Glacial meltwater carved the whole valley, and left the lakes that sit inside the city; the Minnesota River joins the Mississippi just downstream near Fort Snelling.
Cities near Minneapolis
Nearby cities are St. Paul, Milwaukee, Madison, Omaha and Chicago. The Midwest region page puts Minnesota in the wider picture.