Renter and owner households by council ward, Saint Paul and Minneapolis, 2020 census
Published by the Twin Cities Renter Guide, twincitiesrenterguide.com.
Last updated: Oct. 22, 2026. Files generated Oct. 24, 2026 by build_civic.py.

DESCRIPTION
2020 census counts of people, renter households and owner households in each of Saint Paul's 7 and Minneapolis's 13 council wards, plus a Minnesota Compass 2020-2024 estimate of the renter share, as shown on the How they voted ward cards.

SOURCES
- Metropolitan Council, Census 2020 population and housing by block (census2020population), via the Minnesota Geospatial Commons: https://geo.btaa.org/catalog/7660bcce-c61a-40c7-b2e9-4b59b2b4cecb (catalog page accessed Oct. 18, 2026; data file downloaded Oct. 17, 2026 (file date)).
- Census 2020 TIGER block boundaries (census2020tiger), Minnesota Geospatial Commons: https://geo.btaa.org/catalog/3ac4cf8a-1459-48b2-9e53-bf8277c23bbf (catalog page accessed Oct. 18, 2026; data file downloaded Oct. 17, 2026 (file date)).
- Ward boundaries: Minnesota Secretary of State statewide precinct file, May 1, 2026 snapshot, via civic-data-boundaries-us-mn-precincts on GitHub: https://github.com/civic-interconnect/civic-data-boundaries-us-mn-precincts (accessed Oct. 16, 2026; downloaded Oct. 16, 2026 (file date)).
- Minnesota Compass, Minneapolis and St. Paul Neighborhoods workbook (2020-2024 American Community Survey): https://www.mncompass.org/sites/default/files/2026-04/Minneapolis%20and%20St.%20Paul%20Neighborhoods.xlsx (accessed Oct. 17, 2026; downloaded Oct. 17, 2026 (file date)).

METHOD
Precincts named "Minneapolis W-n" or "St. Paul W-n" in the Secretary of State file were merged into wards.
Each 2020 census block in Hennepin and Ramsey counties was assigned to the ward containing its interior point (a point guaranteed to fall inside the block), and its people, owner households and renter households were added up. The wards drawn in 2022 follow census block edges. Renter share = renter / (owner + renter).
Compass estimate: each neighborhood's 2020-2024 occupied and renter-occupied household estimates were split across the wards it overlaps in proportion to 2020 census households in each piece, then summed by ward.
twin-cities-ward-renters-2020-blocks.csv is a copy of the block-level census counts that were summed, with the ward each block was assigned to; its totals match this file exactly.

COLUMNS
See twin-cities-ward-renters-2020-dictionary.csv and twin-cities-ward-renters-2020-blocks-dictionary.csv.

LIMITS
Census counts are from April 2020; neighborhoods have changed since.
The Compass figures are survey estimates with margins of error, and spreading neighborhood estimates across ward lines adds more uncertainty. The Compass workbook is linked, not copied here.
Blocks with no people or housing are kept in the block file with zeros.