Minnsights Blog

The success of Minnesota’s economy, both now and in the future, is intrinsically linked to Minnesota’s immigrant communities. As innovators, business owners, workers, taxpayers, consumers, neighbors and connectors to other countries and cultures around the world, immigrants provide considerable benefits to our economy and our state. This report analyzes immigrants’ contributions to Minnesota through many lenses, with a specific focus on entrepreneurship, impact on regional economies and contributions to key state industries.

Minnesota’s demographics are shifting and the population is quickly aging.2 According to the State Demographer, deaths will outnumber births by the early 2040s.3 For Minnesota to experience meaningful population growth in the future, it will need to come from migration to the state.

There are a number of ways to analyze the economic and multidimensional contributions of immigrants to the development of Minnesota’s economy. In this analysis, immigrants’ impacts are measured by their role in the economy as consumers, sources of human capital, taxpayers, entrepreneurs and by facilitating connections to global markets.

Immigrants are more geographically concentrated than native-born citizens, no matter what geographical unit is used. To facilitate further analysis of immigrants in Minnesota, this report divides the state into six regions: Central, Twin Cities metro, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest.

Minnesota has a diverse economy with specialization in numerous industries. Using location quotients, which identify specialization in an area, a few types of industries stand out as integral to the Minnesota economy.