Why Duluth Is Considered Minnesota's Best College Town

It may still be the middle of summer, but college students across the Gopher State will soon start to get ready to pack up and head back to class. But only some of them will head to the campus in the Minnesota city that's known as the best college town.

The North Star State is no slouch when it comes to being the home of great colleges and universities, but only one college is located in the best college town is the best in the entire state. Some might say that would be the town in Minnesota where the coffee is strong, the winters are stronger, and the school spirit could thaw even the iciest sidewalks.

Others call it home—at least until graduation, that is. So, just which college town is the best in the state of Minnesota? That's the question this new survey just set out to answer, just ahead of the 2025-2026 school year.

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And Minnesota is home to a lot of institutions of higher learning. We may be the Land of 10,000 Lakes, but we're also the land of 425,000 college students. That's the number of students the Minnesota Office of Higher Education says are enrolled in public and private postsecondary institutions at the undergraduate and graduate levels across the state.

Those nearly half a million students in the North Star State might be students at one of Minnesota's public universities. The Minnesota Office of Higher Education says our state's seven state universities all offer programs leading to bachelor's or master's degrees. They include:

Bemidji State University
Metropolitan State University
Minnesota State University Mankato
Minnesota State University Moorhead
Southwest Minnesota State University
St. Cloud State University
Winona State University

Of course, there's also the University of Minnesota, which has five different four-year campuses:

University of Minnesota Twin Cities
University of Minnesota Crookston
University of Minnesota Duluth
University of Minnesota Morris
University of Minnesota Rochester

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And don't forget about Minnesota's private colleges. According to the Minnesota Private College Council, 18 private colleges call the Bold North home:

Augsburg University (Minneapolis)
Bethany Lutheran College (Mankato)
Bethel University (Arden Hills)
Carleton College (Northfield)
College of Saint Benedict (St. Joseph)
College of St. Scholastica (Duluth)
Concordia College (Moorhead)
Concordia University (St. Paul)
Gustavus Adolphus College (St. Peter)
Hamline University (St. Paul)
Macalester College (St. Paul)
Minneapolis College of Art and Design (Minneapolis)
Saint John’s University (Collegeville)
Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota (Winona)
St. Catherine University (St. Paul)
St. Olaf College (Northfield)
University of Northwestern – St. Paul (Roseville)
University of St. Thomas (St. Paul)

So just which college town is the best in the state? That was the question the crew at World Atlas set out to answer in their latest survey. And after they crunched all the numbers, they have crowned Duluth as Minnesota's Best College Town!

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Duluth, of course, is home to the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). World Atlas says it was founded as the Duluth Normal School by the Minnesota State Legislature in 1895 and became part of the U of M system in 1947. Today, nearly 10,000 students attend school at UMD, as World Atlas explains:

UMD offers degrees in business, engineering, natural sciences, education, and liberal arts, among other fields, and as of 2025, ranks number four among the top Regional Universities in the Midwest (it takes the spot for Minnesota).

So there you go. I thought Winona, St. Cloud or even Mankato might give Duluth a run for its money as the best college town, but I guess not. Now, if you don't want to go back to school but would still like a job with a decent salary, keep scrolling to check out the Highest-Paying Jobs in Minnesota!