Minnesota counties quiz

The 87 counties in the quiz

They’re the 87 counties of Minnesota, as counted by the US Census Bureau. The state capital, St. Paul, is in Ramsey County.

How to play

In Point mode we name a county and you tap it on the map; in Type mode one lights up and you type its name (accents don’t matter); and in Time trial you get 6 seconds per question. If you miss, we show you where it was, which way it lies and a hint drawn from the data: its size rank and its neighbors.

Each game has 10, 20 or all the questions, and at the end you can practice just the ones you missed. Your best score for each mode is saved in this browser only: neither we nor anyone else can see it, and there’s no sign-up.

The hardest ones

The smallest counties are the hardest, since they barely show on the map: Ramsey (152 sq mi), Carver (354 sq mi), and Scott (356 sq mi). Zoom in with the buttons or two fingers to tap them.

And watch out for look-alike names: Lake, Lake of the Woods, and Red Lake.

Tips to learn them

• The 10 counties bordering Wisconsin trace that border on the map: Carlton, Chisago, Dakota, Goodhue, Houston, Pine, St. Louis, Wabasha, Washington, and Winona.
• Only 3 of the 87 counties have a Great Lakes shoreline: find them first along the edge of the map.
• Hennepin is the most populous (1,284,784 people in 2025) and, together with Ramsey and Dakota, is home to 39% of Minnesota’s people.

Playing in class

If you teach in Minnesota, start with your school’s county and its neighbors and add a few each day. Otherwise, it’s a good way to get to know the state before studying it.

With the Challenge your class link, everyone gets the same questions in the same order, with no accounts or passwords, and each student sees their own score, time and streak. To practice on paper, there’s a printable worksheet of the same map with an answer key.

List of all 87 counties

1. Aitkin pop. 16,252
2. Anoka pop. 381,605
3. Becker pop. 35,497
4. Beltrami pop. 47,055
5. Benton pop. 41,744
6. Big Stone pop. 5,054
7. Blue Earth pop. 70,634
8. Brown pop. 25,517
9. Carlton pop. 36,711
10. Carver pop. 114,379
11. Cass pop. 31,430
12. Chippewa pop. 12,406
13. Chisago pop. 59,142
14. Clay pop. 67,734
15. Clearwater pop. 8,647
16. Cook pop. 5,522
17. Cottonwood pop. 11,405
18. Crow Wing pop. 69,132
19. Dakota pop. 457,710
20. Dodge pop. 21,376
21. Douglas pop. 40,120
22. Faribault pop. 13,888
23. Fillmore pop. 21,540
24. Freeborn pop. 30,440
25. Goodhue pop. 48,195
26. Grant pop. 6,085
27. Hennepin pop. 1,284,784
28. Houston pop. 18,400
29. Hubbard pop. 22,369
30. Isanti pop. 44,386
31. Itasca pop. 45,404
32. Jackson pop. 9,857
33. Kanabec pop. 16,628
34. Kandiyohi pop. 44,720
35. Kittson pop. 4,031
36. Koochiching pop. 11,587
37. Lac qui Parle pop. 6,704
38. Lake pop. 10,746
39. Lake of the Woods pop. 3,770
40. Le Sueur pop. 29,453
41. Lincoln pop. 5,583
42. Lyon pop. 25,684
43. Mahnomen pop. 5,153
44. Marshall pop. 8,798
45. Martin pop. 19,440
46. McLeod pop. 36,631
47. Meeker pop. 23,603
48. Mille Lacs pop. 27,753
49. Morrison pop. 34,620
50. Mower pop. 40,971
51. Murray pop. 7,942
52. Nicollet pop. 34,273
53. Nobles pop. 22,338
54. Norman pop. 6,336
55. Olmsted pop. 166,731
56. Otter Tail pop. 61,041
57. Pennington pop. 13,686
58. Pine pop. 30,472
59. Pipestone pop. 9,260
60. Polk pop. 30,545
61. Pope pop. 11,420
62. Ramsey pop. 541,623
63. Red Lake pop. 3,940
64. Redwood pop. 15,265
65. Renville pop. 14,356
66. Rice pop. 69,939
67. Rock pop. 9,524
68. Roseau pop. 15,246
69. Scott pop. 159,017
70. Sherburne pop. 104,194
71. Sibley pop. 15,356
72. St. Louis pop. 200,518
73. Stearns pop. 164,110
74. Steele pop. 37,464
75. Stevens pop. 9,747
76. Swift pop. 9,763
77. Todd pop. 26,060
78. Traverse pop. 3,130
79. Wabasha pop. 21,537
80. Wadena pop. 14,388
81. Waseca pop. 18,688
82. Washington pop. 286,895
83. Watonwan pop. 11,459
84. Wilkin pop. 6,288
85. Winona pop. 50,523
86. Wright pop. 157,559
87. Yellow Medicine pop. 9,477