Minnesota trivia: 75 facts about one of the states of America!

Minnesota is one of the northern states of America and one of the coldest! There is no suprise that its weather is peculiar!

Do you wanna know more about this state of America and its people?

Minnesota is a state in the Upper Midwest and northern regions of the United States
Minnesota was admitted as the 32nd U.S. state on May 11, 1858
It was created from the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory
The state has a large number of lakes
It is known by the slogan the “Land of 10,000 Lakes”
Its official motto is L’Étoile du Nord
French for the Star of the North
Minnesota is the 12th largest in area
It is also the 22nd most populous of the U.S. states
Nearly 60% of its residents live in the Minneapolis– Saint Paul metropolitan area
They are also known as the “Twin Cities”
They are the center of transportation, business, industry, education, and government
And home to an internationally known arts community
The remainder of the state consists of western prairies now given over to intensive agriculture
Deciduous forests in the southeast, now partially cleared, farmed, and settled
And the less populated North Woods, used for mining, forestry, and recreation
Minnesota was inhabited by various indigenous peoples for thousands of years prior to the arrival of Europeans
French explorers, missionaries, and fur traders began exploring the region in the 17th century
They encountered the Dakota and Ojibwe/Anishinaabe tribes
Much of what is today Minnesota was part of the vast French holding of Louisiana
It was purchased by the United States in 1803
Following several territorial reorganizations, Minnesota in its current form was admitted as the country’s 32nd state on May 11, 1858
Like many Midwestern states, it remained sparsely populated
Its people centered on lumber and agriculture
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, a large number of European immigrants began to settle the state
They were mainly from Scandinavia and Germany
The state remains till today a center of Scandinavian American and German American culture
In recent decades, immigration from Asia, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America has broadened its demographic and cultural composition
The state’s economy has heavily diversified
It is shifting from traditional activities such as agriculture and resource extraction to services and finance
Minnesota’s standard of living index is among the highest in the United States
The state is also among the best-educated
And one of the wealthiest in the nation
The word Minnesota comes from the Dakota name for the Minnesota River
The river got its name from one of two words in the Dakota language
‘Mní sóta’ which means “clear blue water”
Or ‘Mnißota’, which means cloudy water
Native Americans demonstrated the name to early settlers by dropping milk into water and calling it mnisota
Many places in the state have similar names, such as Minnehaha Falls (“curling water” or waterfall)
Minneiska (“white water”)
Minneota (“much water”)
Minnetonka (“big water”)
Minnetrista (“crooked water”)
And Minneapolis, a combination of mni and polis, the Greek word for “city”
Minnesota is the second northernmost U.S. state
It is also the northernmost contiguous state
Its isolated Northwest Angle in Lake of the Woods county is the only part of the 48 contiguous states lying north of the 49th parallel
The state is part of the U.S. region known as the Upper Midwest
And part of North America’s Great Lakes Region
It shares a Lake Superior water border with Michigan
A land and water border with Wisconsin to the east
Iowa is to the south
North Dakota and South Dakota are to the west
The Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba are to the north
It is 86,943 square miles (225,180 km2) large or approximately 2.25% of the United States
Minnesota is the 12th-largest state
Minnesota experiences temperature extremes characteristic of its continental climate, with cold winters and hot summers
Meteorological events include rain, snow, blizzards, thunderstorms, hail, derechos, tornadoes, and high-velocity straight-line winds
The growing season varies from 90 days per year in the Iron Range to 160 days in southeast Minnesota near the Mississippi River
The United States Census Bureau estimates the population of Minnesota was 5,489,594 on July 1, 2015
That was 3.5 percent increase since the 2010 United States Census
The rate of population change, and age and gender distributions, approximate the national average
Minnesota’s center of population is in Hennepin County
The majority of Minnesotans are Protestant
They also have a Lutheran contingent, owing to the state’s largely Northern European ethnic makeup
Roman Catholics (of largely German, Irish, French and Slavic descent) make up the largest single Christian denomination
Once primarily a producer of raw materials, Minnesota’s economy has transformed to emphasize finished products and services
Perhaps the most significant characteristic of the economy is its diversity
The economy of Minnesota had a gross domestic product of $262 billion in 2008
The per capita personal income in 2008 was $42,772
The tenth-highest in the nation
The three-year median household income from 2002 to 2004 was $55,914
It ranked fifth in the U.S.
First among the 36 states not on the Atlantic coast
As of December 2018, the state’s unemployment rate was 2.8 percent