2019 Minnesota news, by the numbers

Here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, 2019 brought us sports disappointment, the ubiquitous face of Kris Lindahl and more reports of Uptown’s death (not greatly exaggerated).

But that’s not all. Here’s the good and the bad of 2019 summed up in numbers. Feel free to use these data points as conversation starters to to steer the discussion away from awkward territory (or make the table talk more uncomfortable) at your family holiday celebration this week.

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Minimum number of people sickened by a Lake Minnetonka mystery pathogen around the Fourth of July last summer: 172

St. Paul murder rate per 100,000 residents as of earlier this month: 9.6

Last year St. Paul’s murder rate was this high:  1994

Minneapolis’ rate: 10.5

Average earnings, in cents, Minnesota women make for every dollar men make: 73

Number of Iowa’s 99 counties Amy Klobuchar has visited in her presidential bid to date: 96

Net number of people Minnesota gained in population from other states in the most recent year of Census data available: 6,796

Number of new taprooms that opened in Minnesota in 2019: 12

Number of brewpubs: 9

People of color or indigenous people serving in the Minnesota Legislature: 21

Proportion of legislators who fit that description: 10.4 percent

Proportion of Minnesotans who do: 20.5 percent

Share of St. Paul voters choosing to keep city-organized trash collection in November: 63 percent

Annual amount Minnetonka Public Schools agreed to pay an undisclosed company to monitor “threats shared publicly” for three years: $23,500

Minimum number of Twitter followers Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey gained in a few days after feuding with President Donald Trump over rally security bills in October: 36,000

Loons counted by volunteers in the most recent available report from the Minnesota Loon Count Program: 1,637

Number of bills vetoed by Gov. Tim Walz in his first Legislative session: 0

Number vetoed by his predecessor, Mark Dayton, in his first session: 23

Average attendance at St. Paul Saints games, per the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball: 8,061

Seats in CHS Field: 7,210

Amount, in degrees Fahrenheit, average temperatures have risen in Kittson and Roseau counties since 1895: 4.3

Power outages caused in Minnesota by squirrels, as tracked by CyberSquirrel1: 18

Share of men who bike to work in the Twin Cities: 1.2 percent

Of women: 0.6 percent

Portion of Minneapolis households that rent: 53 percent

Median net farm income in Minnesota: $26,000

Share of Minnesota dairy farms that closed in the last year: 10.2 percent