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Demographics of Saint Paul, MN
Affluence Level in Saint Paul, MN
A middle-class area roughly in line with national averages across income, home values, education, and employment.
People of Saint Paul, MN
The people of Saint Paul today number 307,762, forming a city that is notably more diverse than its Twin Cities counterpart, Minneapolis. With a white population of 50.6%, Saint Paul is a majority-minority city where East and Southeast Asian communities (17.0%) and Black residents (16.0%) represent the largest non-white groups, alongside a growing Hispanic population (9.1%) and a small Indian-subcontinent community (0.8%). The city’s character is shaped by its historic role as a working-class immigrant hub, a legacy visible in its dense, walkable neighborhoods and a foreign-born share of 6.8% that is lower than many coastal cities but concentrated in distinct ethnic enclaves.
How the city was settled and grew
Saint Paul’s population history begins with the Dakota people, who inhabited the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers long before European arrival. The U.S. government forcibly removed most Dakota after the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War, opening the land for white settlement. The city’s founding boom came from its position as a steamboat terminus and railroad hub, drawing waves of German, Irish, and Scandinavian immigrants in the mid-to-late 1800s. These groups built the city’s core neighborhoods: Germans concentrated along the West Side flats and in the working-class Dayton’s Bluff area, while Irish immigrants settled near the riverfront in the Lowertown and Irvine Park districts, often working on the railroads or in the city’s burgeoning manufacturing sector. By 1900, Saint Paul was a majority-immigrant city, with Eastern European Jews and Italians arriving later and establishing themselves in the Selby-Dale and Frogtown neighborhoods. The city’s growth plateaued after World War II, as suburbanization drew white families to surrounding Ramsey County suburbs like Roseville and Maplewood, leaving Saint Paul’s urban core increasingly working-class and ethnic.
Modern era (post-1965)
The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act reshaped Saint Paul’s demographics dramatically. The most transformative wave came from Southeast Asia: after the Vietnam War ended in 1975, Saint Paul became a primary resettlement site for Hmong refugees from Laos, followed by Vietnamese and Cambodian communities. The Hmong population, now the largest urban Hmong community in the United States, concentrated in the Frogtown, North End, and East Side neighborhoods, where they revitalized aging housing stock and established a dense network of ethnic grocery stores, churches, and community organizations. Black migration to Saint Paul came in two phases: a smaller wave of African Americans from the South during the Great Migration (1940–1970), settling in the Rondo neighborhood (later disrupted by I-94 construction), and a larger post-1990 influx of African immigrants, particularly Liberians and Somalis, who now live across the Midway and East Side areas. Hispanic growth, primarily Mexican and Central American, accelerated after 2000, with families settling on the West Side (historically the city’s German and Mexican gateway) and in the Dayton’s Bluff area. The Indian-subcontinent community remains small (0.8%) and dispersed, with no single dominant neighborhood. White flight to suburbs slowed by the 1990s, but the white share continued declining from roughly 70% in 1990 to 50.6% today, driven by aging demographics and lower birth rates among white residents.
The future
Saint Paul’s population is trending toward greater ethnic diversity, but the trajectory is not one of simple homogenization. The Hmong community, now into its third generation, is experiencing significant out-marriage and suburbanization, with younger families moving to suburbs like Woodbury and Oakdale, potentially reducing the city’s Asian share over the next decade. Black and Hispanic populations are growing steadily through both domestic in-migration and higher birth rates, with the Hispanic share projected to reach 12–14% by 2035. The white population is aging in place, particularly in wealthier enclaves like Macalester-Groveland and Highland Park, where home values and school performance attract a smaller number of new white families. The city is not tribalizing into rigid enclaves—neighborhoods like Frogtown and the East Side are increasingly multi-ethnic—but economic segregation is deepening, with the city’s poverty rate (20.4%) concentrated in the same areas that absorbed the newest immigrants. The foreign-born share is likely to remain stable or decline slightly as second-generation residents assimilate and move outward.
For someone moving to Saint Paul now, the city offers a genuinely diverse, walkable urban environment with a strong sense of neighborhood identity, but it is not a melting pot in the classic sense. The population is becoming more non-white, more suburban-bound among younger families, and more economically stratified. A new resident should expect a city where ethnic communities maintain distinct cultural institutions, where the public schools reflect the city’s diversity (roughly 30% Asian, 25% Black, 20% Hispanic, 20% white), and where the political culture leans left but with a pragmatic, working-class undercurrent shaped by its immigrant history.
* Values derived from national, state, county, city and local statistics and may differ in a specific area. Last updated: 2026-05-01T21:48:53.000Z
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