Minnesota vs North Dakota: two economies side by side

Minnesota and North Dakota share a border. Here are the two economies on the same measures, with the rank of each among 51 states and DC.

PlainsMinnesota leads on 5, North Dakota on 6 of 11 measures

Indicator	A · MN	B · ND	Ranks
GDP, 2025	$515.1B	$82.3B	20 · 46
Real GDP growth, 2025	+0.70%	+0.47%	47 · 48
Real growth a year since 2015	+1.3%	+1.1%	40 · 45
GDP per person	$88,350	$103,020	20 · 8
Income per person, 2025	$78,197	$77,438	17 · 18
Real income per person (2017 $)	$62,039	$65,271	14 · 7
Price level (US = 100)	98.6	89.0	22 · 44
Housing costs (US = 100)	91.3	71.4	23 · 39
Unemployment, September 2026	4.5%	2.2%	39 · 2
Population	5,830,405	799,358	22 · 47
Population growth a year since 2020	+0.42%	+0.50%	30 · 27

Highlighted: the higher value, or the lower one for prices and unemployment. BEA (GDP, income, price parities), BLS (unemployment).

Fig. 1Real GDP, index 2015 = 100Chained 2017 dollars

MinnesotaNorth Dakota

Fig. 2Unemployment rateMonthly, seasonally adjusted, since 2015

MinnesotaNorth Dakota

Industry mix, 2025

Share of each state’s GDP. Sorted by the gap between the two.

Industry	MN	ND	Gap, pp	Larger in
Mining, oil & gas	0.3%	13.9%	13.6	ND
Agriculture	1.6%	5.7%	4.2	ND
Professional services	6.9%	3.1%	3.8	MN
Real estate	12.6%	9.2%	3.4	MN
Finance & insurance	9.1%	5.8%	3.3	MN
Manufacturing	11.3%	8.3%	2.9	MN
Management of companies	3.3%	1.0%	2.3	MN
Health care	10.1%	7.9%	2.2	MN
Transportation & warehousing	3.2%	4.2%	1.0	ND
Administrative & waste services	2.3%	1.5%	0.9	MN
Information	3.2%	2.3%	0.9	MN
Government	9.5%	10.4%	0.8	ND
Utilities	1.6%	2.4%	0.7	ND
Arts & recreation	1.1%	0.5%	0.6	MN
Education	0.9%	0.3%	0.6	MN
Construction	5.0%	5.6%	0.5	ND
Wholesale trade	7.6%	8.1%	0.5	ND
Other services	2.2%	1.8%	0.4	MN
Accommodation & food	2.5%	2.4%	0.1	MN
Retail trade	5.7%	5.7%	0.0