On Thursday, the U.S. Census Bureau released population numbers for 2022 and no county has grown as much by percentage as Wright County. The county population has grown an astounding 4.33 percent to 148,003 – the highest percentage increase in the state. The next highest are Cass County (3.76 percent), Sherburne County (3.32 percent), Isanti County (3.24 percent) and Mille Lacs County (3.09 percent).
In terms of pure numbers, Wright County is second in the number of new residents with 6,143 – behind only Washington County (7,540, which represents a 1.2 percent increase).
For many years, Wright County has been the 10th largest county in the state, but at its current rate of 10-year growth (a 21.65 percent increase based on 2021-22 increases), by the 2030 Census, the county population would be more than 170,000, which could find Wright County moving up to the seventh-largest county based on much slower growth in counties currently larger than Wright County – Olmsted (164,020), Stearns (160,045) and Scott (154,520).
There are many advantages that draw people to call Wright County home and, from the looks of things, it won’t be slowing down any time soon.
MPR News did an analysis of the growth counties and those losing populations that can be seen here: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2023/03/30/the-new-place-to-live-in-minnesota-wright-county