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Info From Wiki
Page MINNESOTA is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest
state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota
was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the
Union as the thirty-second state on May 11, 1858. Known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes", the
state's name comes from a Dakota word for "sky-tinted water". Those
waters, together with forests, parks, and wilderness areas, offer residents and tourists a
variety of outdoor recreational opportunities.
Nearly sixty percent of Minnesota's residents live in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area known as the "Twin
Cities", the center of transportation, business, industry and education, and home to an
internationally known arts community. The remainder of the state consists of western prairies now given over to intensive
agriculture; deciduous forests in the southeast, now
cleared, farmed and settled; and the less populated North Woods, used for mining, forestry, and
recreation. The large majority of residents are of German or Nordic descent, but ethnic diversity has
increased in recent decades. Substantial influxes of African, Asian, and Latin American immigrants have joined the
descendants of European immigrants and the original
Native American inhabitants.
The state is known for its moderate to progressive politics and social policies,
civic involvement, and high voter turnout. Minnesota ranks among the
healthiest states, and has a highly literate population.
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