11,338 people (2024 Census estimate, −1.6% since 2020)
640 square miles of land · 18 people per square mile
“Highest” and “lowest” are just order, not grades: a high rank for poverty or hazard losses means more of it. Each figure's source is in its section below.
9 active community water systems list Cottonwood County in the area they serve, reporting 14,114 people served in all (a system that crosses county lines counts its whole population).
| Red Rock Rural Water System groundwater · local government · MN1170009 | 5,840 served |
| Windom groundwater · local government · MN1170006 | 4,646 served |
| Mountain Lake groundwater · local government · MN1170003 | 2,018 served |
| Westbrook groundwater · local government · MN1170005 | 785 served |
| Jeffers buys groundwater · local government · MN1170002 | 369 served |
| Storden buys groundwater · local government · MN1170004 | 215 served |
| Bingham Lake buys groundwater · local government · MN1170008 | 128 served |
| Delft buys groundwater · local government · MN1170010 | 58 served |
Source: U.S. EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), active community systems, . Look up any system's violations and test results with EPA's search using its ID.
About 14 people were held in Cottonwood County's jail, in Vera's latest figure (2019), or 215 per 100,000 residents ages 15–64. In 2014 it was about 11.
Source: Vera Institute of Justice, Incarceration Trends (built from federal Bureau of Justice Statistics jail surveys). Counties without their own jail, or that share one, may show no figure.
3 school districts have their office in Cottonwood County. School taxes are usually the largest part of a property tax bill.
Spent $21.6 million — $18.4 million to run schools, about $15,801 per student, plus $1.3 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $5.6 million local (mostly property tax), $14.5 million state, $2 million federal. Long-term debt: $27.4 million.
Spent $11.5 million — $9 million to run schools, about $17,998 per student, plus $942,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $2.6 million local (mostly property tax), $6.4 million state, $1.2 million federal. Long-term debt: $23.5 million.
Spent $8.9 million — $7.3 million to run schools, about $15,208 per student, plus $1.1 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $2.1 million local (mostly property tax), $5.8 million state, $1.2 million federal.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 Annual Survey of School System Finances. Districts are listed by the county of their main office; some serve neighboring counties too.
Source: County Health Rankings & Roadmaps 2025 (University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute), which gathers federal data (CDC, Census, and others); measures cover different recent years. Blank lines aren't reported for small counties.
Overall risk: Very Low compared with other U.S. counties. FEMA estimates natural hazards cost Cottonwood County about $8.7 million a year on average in buildings, crops and lives. Ability to bounce back (community resilience): Relatively High; social vulnerability: Relatively Moderate.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025), expected annual loss. Ratings compare counties nationwide; they're estimates, not predictions.
150 bridges in Cottonwood County: 111 in good condition, 30 fair, and 9 poor (6.0%). “Poor” means a main part — the deck, the beams, or the supports — is rated 4 or lower on the federal 0–9 scale. It doesn't mean unsafe to drive; unsafe bridges are closed.
| MN 60 over DES MOINES RIVER · built 1971 | 11,239 vehicles a day |
| CSAH 5 over DES MOINES RIVER · built 1951 | 1,107 vehicles a day |
| CSAH 15 over DES MOINES RIVER · built 1960 | 415 vehicles a day |
| CSAH 13 over S FK WATONWAN RIVER · built 1959 | 263 vehicles a day |
| CSAH 4 over STREAM · built 1954 | 110 vehicles a day |
| CSAH 4 over DRY CREEK · built 1949 | 110 vehicles a day |
Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory (2025 submission). Includes state, county and city bridges.
Federal grants paid for $2.1 million of work in Cottonwood County in fiscal 2025, about $180 per resident — to the county, cities, schools, hospitals, nonprofits and others.
Source: USAspending.gov, grants by place of performance, fiscal 2025 (Oct. 2024 to Sept. 2025). Search it by county to see each award.
From Grants.gov: posted grants listing county governments as eligible, soonest deadline first; research-only and overseas programs left out; list updated 2026-10-13, refreshed weekly. 62 are open in all. Cities, towns, school districts and nonprofits have their own lists there.
Registration deadlines, early voting and polling places for Minnesota are on the federal site vote.gov, which links to the state's official election office.
The budget, property tax rates, audits, local officials and offices for Cottonwood County come from the county's own records, which we haven't gathered — not gathered, never hidden. See what a full county site looks like, or ask to have Cottonwood County built: brayden.ozark@gmail.com.
More of Minnesota: the state government and every county in Minnesota.
Nearby counties: Jackson County (23 mi) · Redwood County (27 mi) · Brown County (28 mi) · Watonwan County (28 mi) · Murray County (29 mi) · Nobles County (37 mi).