A Closer Look At St. Cloud’s Unique Diversity

The American Library Association defines diversity as "the presence of a wide range of human differences within a setting, including race, gender, sexual orientation, age, social class, physical ability, and beliefs."

Financial website WalletHub set out to find the Most Diverse Cities in America with its recent study. While St. Cloud, Minnesota ranked 249th overall, the study also found the Granite City to be the sixth-highest rate of household diversity in the entire country.

That category includes marital status diversity (married, divorced, separated, widowed); age diversity, household-type diversity (single parents, unmarried couples) and household-size diversity.

“The most diverse cities demonstrate diversity in many dimensions – not just in race and gender but also everything from residents’ languages and birthplaces to their job types and household sizes," said WalletHub's Chip Lupo. "These cities blend together a multitude of different perspectives, helping people to better understand the world around them and become more empathetic. This exchange of ideas also tends to increase the economic success of diverse cities.”

HOW DIVERSE IS ST. CLOUD, MINNESOTA IN 2026? 

St. Cloud also placed in the top 200 (of 501 cities studied) in Household-size Diversity (96th overall),  Income Diversity (196th), Linguistic Diversity (169th) and Occupational Diversity (117th).

St. Cloud's lowest finish in a single category was its 415th ranking in the Industry Diversity ranking while also finishing 392nd in Birthplace Diversity.

WHICH MINNESOTA CITIES ARE MOST DIVERSE? 

Brooklyn Park ranks as the most diverse city in Minnesota, finishing #28 out of 501 cities studied, followed by St. Paul (86th), Minneapolis (94th), Bloomington (139th), St. Cloud (249th), Rochester (329th), Plymouth (335th) and Woodbury (336th).

Of the cities studied, Duluth ranks as Minnesota's least diverse city at #477 overall.