City safety & data profile

Cottage GroveMN

Cottage Grove, MN is a 36K-resident city in Washington County with a median household income of $120,791.

Washington County, Minnesota. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Cottage Grove, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Cottage Grove has a population larger than 70% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, and a median home value of $378,800.

Data updated 2026-09-03

36K
Population (place)
Top 30%
By size
$120,791
Median income (place)
$378,800
Median home (place)
4.2%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Cottage Grove

Cottage Grove posts a median household income higher than 83% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks.

Top 17%
by median income, US cities

Where Cottage Grove income ranks nationally

Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)

$120,791 Top 17% higher than 83% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Cottage Grove $0 $260,000 every profiled place, bucketed by value

Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year

Largest cities in MN

Population among 97 MN places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.

residents

What this shows Minneapolis is the largest MN city on this list; Rogers leads median income.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

Highest median incomes in MN

Median household income among the same 97-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.

median

What this shows Rogers posts the highest place-level median income in MN; Minneapolis is largest by headcount.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

The quick read

Reading Cottage Grove, MN beyond the headline numbers

Cottage Grove sits inside Washington County, Minnesota, at roughly 44.83°N, -92.94°W. Population 35,918, $120,791 median household income. Median home value $378,800, median rent $1,783. Poverty rate 4.2%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

Hardship is low by national standards: 4.2% of Cottage Grove, MN residents live below the poverty line, in the least-affected quarter of the 3,890 cities reporting a rate.

The median home in Cottage Grove costs roughly 3.1 times median household income, below the midpoint for reporting cities, so ownership remains reachable on a typical local wage.

21.1% of Cottage Grove workers report working from home, the highest quarter of reporting cities. Where that share runs this high, local income increasingly reflects employers located somewhere else.

Among the CDC measures on this page, short sleep duration departs furthest from its peer median: 26.8% in Cottage Grove, the lowest-prevalence quarter of the 3,852 cities reporting that measure.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Cottage Grove from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.

Population (place)
35,918
Cottage Grove · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$120,791
+35% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$378,800
-8% vs avg
Median Age (place)
36.5
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Washington County): Cottage Grove's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.

20132024
Population
276K+14%
Median Income
$115,345+41%
Median Home Value
$422,000+74%
Poverty Rate
5.1%-11%
Unemployment
3.4%-44%

Economics

Economics indicators for Cottage Grove, MN
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$1,783/mo
Poverty Rate
4.2% -66% vs avg
Unemployment 3.7%
Bachelor's Degree+ 40.8%
Work From Home 21.1%
Public Transit 0.3%

Population

White 74.4%
African American 6.5%
Asian 7.4%
Two or More Ethnicities 4.1%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

Obesity
33.2%
High Blood Pressure
27.7%
Short Sleep Duration
26.8%
Physical Inactivity
19.4%
Binge Drinking
17.3%
Frequent Mental Distress
14.4%
Current Smoking
12%
Frequent Physical Distress
10.1%
Diabetes
9.7%
Current Asthma
9.6%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 72.9%
Annual Checkup 74.7%

Other Measures

Lack of Health Insurance
6.3%
Coronary Heart Disease
4.7%
Stroke
2.5%

What alerts and safety updates affect Cottage Grove?

No area-tagged alerts are on record for Cottage Grove right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet MN-COTTAGE-GROVE · Cottage Grove

Cottage Grove: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.

  • FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
  • LEAD-NONE Feed idle
  • DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed

Counts reflect published articles tagged to Cottage Grove; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Minnesota state hubs · Methodology

Read with this city profile

Frequently Asked Questions 5

What is the population of Cottage Grove, MN?
Cottage Grove, MN has a population of 35,918 people, located in Washington County, Minnesota.
What is the median household income in Cottage Grove?
The median household income in Cottage Grove, MN is $120,791 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 4.2%.
What is the median home value in Cottage Grove?
The median home value in Cottage Grove, MN is $378,800. Median rent is $1,783/month.
What are the top health concerns in Cottage Grove?
The top health indicators in Cottage Grove include Obesity (33.2%), High Blood Pressure (27.7%), Short Sleep Duration (26.8%). Data from CDC PLACES.
What is the median age in Cottage Grove?
The median age in Cottage Grove, MN is 36.5 years. 40.8% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

Two ACS-derived peer sets for Cottage Grove, both outside Minnesota so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside MN (4.2% here).

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside MN ($120,791 here).

Compare Cottage Grove with another city

Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.

Quick picks:

Nearby Cities 8

Using Cottage Grove's profile

Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.

  • Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Cottage Grove area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
  • Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
  • Compare Cottage Grove against Minnesota peers on any ranking lens. Explore Minnesota

Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.

Data Sources

All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Washington County) where that is the smallest published unit.

Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.