During the great wave of Eastern European immigration in the 1870s through the early 20th Century, many immigrants from Poland, the Baltic States, and Russia, as well as other people from the region settled in the Northeast neighborhood. "Nordeast" was until recently very strongly identified with these populations.

Minneapolis also has a large Native American population, one of the largest in the United States. After the Vietnam War, Minneapolis became a destination city for Hmong and Vietnamese refugees. More recently, a large influx of Somali refugees has modified Minneapolis's ethnic makeup. Smaller populations of Laotians, Cambodians, Ethiopians, Mexicans, and others can also be found in the city. One of the largest Tibetan immigrant populations in the United States resides there as well. [citation needed]

Recycling instructions in a Minneapolis park are given in four languages: English, Hmong, Spanish, and Somali

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Recycling instructions in a Minneapolis park are given in four languages: English, Hmong, Spanish, and Somali

The population residing within the city's limits has decreased significantly since its peak of 521,718 in 1950, although the number of people residing in the city has seen a rebound in recent years. The 1990 census recorded a low of 368,383, and the next census saw a small increase from that level. The rebounding growth has largely been due to an increase in the number of non-white residents, as the number of white residents has continued to decline and is now at its lowest level since the very early 20th century when the city had a much smaller total population. Jews, for example, were once a significant presence in the northern part of the city, but they have largely moved out into suburbs such as St. Louis Park, Golden Valley, and Minnetonka. In general, the Twin Cities suburbs have seen massive growth, and the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area has roughly doubled since 1950 and now has about three million residents.

The downtown region also saw a major decline in population, but managed to retain residents better than many similar cities. The downtown population has been booming in the last decade as new condominiums are completed and warehouses are converted to loft-style housing. The U.S. census recorded 20,201 residents in the city center in 2000, but an estimate by Maxfield Research just five years later in January 2005 put the number at 29,350, fully recovering from losses in the 1960s and 1970s. Considering the number of new condos in development, the downtown district could reach 40,000 by 2010. Still, the people living downtown are greatly outnumbered by commuters, who bring the daytime population up to about 165,000 each weekday.

While the overall population has declined, the number of inhabited houses has remained comparatively steady (as compared to other rust-belt inner cities where large numbers of houses have been razed). Presumably some of the population loss is due to decreased average density per housing unit.

As of the census˛ of 2000, there were 382,618 people, 162,352 households, and 73,870 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,691.4/km˛ (6,970.3/mi˛). There were 168,606 housing units at an average density of 1,186.0/km˛ (3,071.6/mi˛).