City · Steele County, Minnesota

Blooming Prairie, Minnesota

Blooming Prairie is a city in Steele County, Minnesota, part of the Owatonna, MN metro area. It has 1,843 residents. Blooming Prairie, Minnesota has a quality-of-life score of 89 out of 100 (very high), ranking #1,668 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Minnesota it ranks #128 of 364 cities and towns. It ranks best on new business applications (high), hospital quality rating (high) and drought exposure (low). It ranks worst on broadband subscriptions (low), new homes permitted (low) and public transit commuters (low).

89Very high

Quality-of-life score: #1,668 of 15,651 cities and towns
Minnesota: #128 of 364 in MN
Population: 1,843 (2020-2024)
Land area: 1 mi²
Density: 1,351.2 /mi²
FIPS code: 2706580

Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 74 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.

Open in the map

Scores by category

Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.

Safety90#1,474/15,637
Economy70#4,727/15,631
Housing59#6,203/14,977
Health70#4,632/15,609
Healthcare94#867/15,650
Environment91#1,350/15,453
Education68#5,034/15,649
Infrastructure28#11,346/15,650
Community94#972/15,651
Leisure & amenities84#2,491/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where Blooming Prairie, Minnesota ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Steele County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.

Strengths

New business applications · high44.7 /1k
99/100Minnesota 12.7 /1kUnited States 16.6 /1k2025U.S. Census BureauSteele County value
Hospital quality rating · high5.0
98/100Minnesota 3.8United States 3.2Jul 2026Centers for Medicare & Medicaid ServicesSteele County value
Drought exposure · low0%
96/100Minnesota 36%United States 43%Oct 2025–Sep 2026National Drought Mitigation Center (University of Nebraska–Lincoln), USDA and NOAASteele County value
Mammography screening · high56.0%
94/100Minnesota 54.0%United States 46.0%2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteSteele County value
Homicide rate · low0.0 /100k
94/100Minnesota 2.9 /100kUnited States 4.8 /100kMay 2025–Apr 2026Centers for Disease Control and PreventionProvisional dataSteele County value
Social associations · high15.8 /10k
93/100Minnesota 12.2 /10kUnited States 9.1 /10k2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteSteele County value

Weaknesses

Broadband subscriptions · low77.8%
7/100Minnesota 91.6%United States 91.0%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B28002
New homes permitted · low0.0 /1k
13/100Minnesota 3.9 /1kUnited States 4.2 /1kSep 2025–Aug 2026U.S. Census BureauProvisional data
Public transit commuters · low0.0%
27/100Minnesota 1.8%United States 3.2%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B08301
Distance to an Amtrak station · high48 mi
27/100Minnesota 32 miUnited States 43 mi2026Federal Aviation Administration · Bureau of Transportation Statistics · U.S. Census BureauSteele County value
Comfortable days · low24.2%
31/100Minnesota 23.6%United States 26.8%2016-2025NOAA National Centers for Environmental InformationSteele County value
Effective property tax rate · high1.28%
31/100Minnesota 1.00%United States 0.94%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B25090

Trends

The largest changes over about five years, next to the country's over the same periods.

Rent-burdened householdsImproving
75.2% (2015-2019) → 34.3% (2020-2024)
−41 pts5 yearsCensus table B25070US 49.6% → 51.1%
New homes permittedWorsening
1.9 /1k (2021) → 0.0 /1k (Sep 2025–Aug 2026)
−100%5 yearsUS 5.2 /1k → 4.2 /1k
Child poverty rateImproving
27.9% (2015-2019) → 8.2% (2020-2024)
−20 pts5 yearsCensus table B17001US 16.8% → 15.5%
Rent as share of incomeImproving
44.7% (2015-2019) → 26.7% (2020-2024)
−18 pts5 yearsCensus table B25071US 29.8% → 30.6%
Bachelor's degree or higherImproving
16.4% (2015-2019) → 29.7% (2020-2024)
+13 pts5 yearsCensus table B15003US 32.1% → 35.7%
Poverty rateImproving
15.5% (2015-2019) → 7.5% (2020-2024)
−8 pts5 yearsCensus table B17001US 12.3% → 12.1%

What changed in five years

How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.

Over about five years, Blooming Prairie, Minnesota improved on 2 of 11 measures with a comparison and declined on 0. 9 moved within the margin of error and 0 barely changed.

Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing

Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.

Improved2

Rent / income−18 points44.7% → 26.7%
Bachelor's++13 points16.4% → 29.7%

Declined0

No measure declined by more than its margin of error.

All 11 measures

Change of every measure of Blooming Prairie, Minnesota between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Average commute time	19.8 min2015-2019	20.1 min2020-2024	+0.4 min	Within the margin of error	43%
Bachelor's degree or higher	16.4%2015-2019	29.7%2020-2024	+13 points	Improved	96%
Broadband subscriptions	75.9%2015-2019	77.8%2020-2024	+1.8 points	Within the margin of error	14%
Effective property tax rate	1.03%2015-2019	1.28%2020-2024	+0.3 points	Within the margin of error	2%
High school diploma or higher	87.5%2015-2019	88.2%2020-2024	+0.7 points	Within the margin of error	43%
Home price to income ratio	2.3×2015-2019	2.5×2020-2024	+0.2×	Within the margin of error	66%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.3862015-2019	0.4352020-2024	+0.048	Within the margin of error	17%
Median household income	$55,3572015-2019	$63,6562020-2024	+15%	Within the margin of error	24%
Poverty rate	15.5%2015-2019	7.5%2020-2024	−8 points	Within the margin of error	89%
Rent as share of income	44.7%2015-2019	26.7%2020-2024	−18 points	Improved	98%
Uninsured residents (under 65)	4.4%2015-2019	7.0%2020-2024	+2.6 points	Within the margin of error	21%

“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.

Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.

Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.

Cities and towns like Blooming Prairie, Minnesota five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of Blooming Prairie, Minnesota in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.

For comparison, Blooming Prairie, Minnesota itself moved +0.1 points in standing on average over the same 9 measures (standings of all places average about zero).

How the ranking works

Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.

Who lives here

Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).

Age and sex

1,843 residents (±261)

Men
Women

80 and over†
70–79†
60–69†

Income

How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.

Household income

805 households (±111)

Blooming Prairie, Minnesota
Minnesota share

Under $25k19%†155
$25k–50k18%†144
$50k–75k

Homes

Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.

Owners and renters

805 households (±111)

Blooming Prairie, Minnesota
Minnesota share

Own87%699
Rent13%†106

No change since 2015–2019 is larger than the margin of error.

† Wide margin of error (more than 30% of the estimate): read with care.

Table view

Getting to work

How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.

How people get to work

838 workers (±140)

Blooming Prairie, Minnesota
Minnesota share

Drive alone74%623
Carpool5.6%†47
Public transit0.0%0

Jobs and pay

What the largest occupations here pay, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay by metro area, not by county or city. The metro area page lists its largest occupations and lets you look up any job.

Pay in the Owatonna, MN

Local businesses

Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.

The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Steele County, the county holding most of Blooming Prairie's residents.

Steele County has 1,024 employer establishments, 273 for every 10,000 residents (1.10× the US rate of 248; 1.02× Minnesota's), with 18,853 paid employees at an average annual pay of $62,861. The Census Bureau also counts 2,480 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 1,024; 2,480 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 273; US 248 · Minnesota 268
Paid employees: 18,853
Average annual pay: $62,861; US $68,342

Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Steele County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation

Specialty trade contractors	71	19	1.22×About typical	377	$79,894	164
Restaurants and other eating places	57	15.2	0.83×About typical	1,164	$17,367	5
Ambulatory health care services	51	13.6	0.65×Fewer than typical	967	$74,310	64
Truck transportation	39	10.4	2.06×More than typical	337	$71,585	118
Religious organizations	35	9.3	1.68×More than typical	249	$18,843	—
Construction of buildings	32	8.5	1.13×About typical	119	$65,303	71
Services to buildings and dwellings	30	8	1.19×About typical	218	$39,578	127
Automotive repair and maintenance	29	7.7	1.54×More than typical	138	$56,203	37
Insurance agencies and brokerages	28	7.5	1.70×More than typical	70	$53,843	29
Full-service restaurants	26	6.9	0.90×About typical	449	$20,254	—
Limited-service restaurants	25	6.7	0.83×About typical	596	$15,727	—
Lessors of real estate	22	5.9	0.48×Fewer than typical	228	$18,535	303

Rank places for an industry Open Steele County

County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 37,462 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.

Federal contracts performed here

In FY2026, an estimated $1,495 of federal contract obligations were for work performed in Blooming Prairie, Minnesota: $0.81 per resident (US $1,994).

Obligations: $1,495; −82% vs FY2025
Per resident: $0.81; US $1,994
Sole-source: 100%; US 30%
Single offer: 0.0%; US 8.8%

A signal is a reason to look closer, not evidence of wrongdoing: most sole-source awards are lawful and justified.

Top buying agencies

Department of the Navy$1,495100%

Top recipients

STINAR, LLC$1,495100%

Spending by fiscal year

6.8KFY2022
4.8KFY2023
8.3KFY2025
1.5KFY2026

What was bought

Other equipment & supplies$1,495100%

Top industries (NAICS)

Other general purpose machinery manufacturing · 3339$1,495100%

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 3, 2026, loaded Oct 3, 2026.

How this is estimated

Agencies report each contract action's place of performance as a county and a ZIP code. A ZIP code's money is split among the cities it covers by the share of its land inside each (Census 2020 ZIP code tabulation areas); the part outside city limits stays with the county.

The place of performance is what the contracting agency reports, often the contractor's office rather than where the work happens.
Shares are of land, not of people or businesses: a ZIP code that is mostly rural land but has its offices in town gives the town less than it should.
ZIP codes that are not mapped areas (post office boxes, the unique ZIP codes of large federal sites and companies) stay with their county, unless one city covers nearly all of it.
Counts of actions and awards include those only partly in Blooming Prairie, Minnesota, so they do not add up across cities.

Blooming Prairie, Minnesota's figures are part of those of Steele County, MN and Dodge County, MN ($10.7M in FY2026), never added to them: 0.0% of that total.

Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Blooming Prairie is mostly in Steele County.

See federal money in Steele County

Representation in Congress

Members serving today, with their record in the current Congress (party-unity votes cast with their caucus, roll calls missed). Not a grade.

Blooming Prairie, Minnesota is represented in the 119th Congress by these members.

House

Brad FinstadR-MN-1 · 100% of residentsWith party 100%Missed 0.9%

Senate

Explore Congress The 2026 races

County

A city can lie in several counties. Some indicators are published for counties only: the page marks them.

Steele County96100% of residents

Metro area

The metro or micro area the city belongs to.

Owatonna, MN96

Other cities and towns in Steele County

Largest first.

Similar cities and towns

Closest indicator profiles across the country (no model: score distances).

Data and sources

Latest published value of each indicator; periods differ by source. Values flagged by their publisher are marked.

PLACES: Local Data for Better HealthCenters for Disease Control and Prevention · release 2025
Local Area Unemployment StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · release 2025
American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2017-2024
Building Permits SurveyU.S. Census Bureau · release 2026-08
Population Estimates ProgramU.S. Census Bureau · release 2025
Small Area Health Insurance EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
Small Area Income and Poverty EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
County Health Rankings & RoadmapsUniversity of Wisconsin Population Health Institute · release 2022-2025+2026-03-supplement

JSON · /api/v1/places/2706580

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends