Hennepin County, Minnesota, USA

Hennepin County is Minnesota’s most populous county and includes Minneapolis, the county seat, along with dozens of suburban and outlying communities west of the city. The county was created in 1852 and named for Louis Hennepin, a 17th-century French missionary and explorer who visited the area and described Saint Anthony Falls. Its landscape includes the Mississippi River, numerous lakes and a mix of dense urban neighborhoods, suburbs, small cities and rural land. Hennepin County had an estimated 1,284,784 residents in 2025. County government provides public health and social services, courts, elections, law enforcement, transportation, libraries, environmental programs and other regional services.