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MetroCOG presents 2025 Metro Profile: Fargo–Moorhead grows faster, commute times shorter
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Summary
MetroCOG presented the 2025 Metro Profile describing demographic and transportation trends: the Fargo–Moorhead metro added about 5,173 residents in 2024 (nearly 2% growth), Fargo grew ~1.43%, the area has a younger, more-educated population, a 17-minute average commute, and increases in MapBus ridership and Amtrak ridership.
Representatives from MetroCOG presented a high-level summary of the 2025 Metro Profile, a collection of demographic, freight, transit and roadway data for the Fargo–Moorhead metropolitan area.
Key takeaways offered by MetroCOG included: the metro area added 5,173 residents in 2024 (nearly 2% change from the previous year), Fargo itself saw approximately a 1.43% increase; the metro remains younger and more educated than the national average; the average commute in the metro is roughly 17 minutes compared with a national average near 27 minutes; and MapBus carried more than 1.3 million passengers in 2024, a 2.2% increase over the prior year. MetroCOG also reported freight and air metrics: about 349.3 million pounds of air cargo landed at Hector International Airport in 2024 (a 14% decrease year-over-year) and Amtrak’s Empire Builder posted a notable increase in ridership and on-time performance.
MetroCOG staff urged commissioners to review the full report for detailed slides and chapter-level analysis; the document is organized into chapters covering community profile, roadways, freight, rail & air, transit and vehicle miles traveled. Presenters said that even as total vehicle miles traveled has remained relatively steady in recent years, population growth means planners should watch mode-shift and nonmotorized safety trends.
