Sources

Where the facts on this site come from. Every source below is public record, free to redistribute with attribution, or used with permission, and every claim on a page carries its own citation and accessed date.

Demographics and housing characteristics

  • US Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates, 2023 vintage, pulled at tract level via the Census API. Backbone for owner-occupancy, renter share, median rent and housing structure mix. Public domain.
  • Census TIGER/Line boundary files.

Neighborhoods are not Census geographies. See the methodology page for how we handle the mismatch and where we flag it.

Market and prices

  • Redfin Data Center and Zillow Research, both free and redistributable with attribution.
  • Lake Superior Area REALTORS, the authoritative local association, for cross-checks.
  • FHFA and FRED for longer-run context.

Listings themselves come from the MLS via IDX, which requires a broker agreement. This guide does not carry live listings.

Schools

  • NCES Common Core of Data (public domain) for enrollment, grade span, and school identifiers.
  • Minnesota Department of Education report card data.
  • Wisconsin DPI / WISEdash for the Wisconsin side.
  • District websites for non-statistical detail such as programs and campus arrangements.

We build our own transparent ratings from state data. We do not republish GreatSchools, Niche, or other licensed scores.

Parks, trails and recreation

  • City of Duluth Parks and Recreation, including the parks listing and project pages.
  • City of Superior parks information.
  • Minnesota DNR and Wisconsin DNR for state parks, forests and trails.
  • National Park Service where relevant.
  • Superior Hiking Trail Association and COGGS for trail facts.
  • OpenStreetMap / Overpass (ODbL, attributed) for geographic detail.

We do not scrape AllTrails.

Walkability

  • EPA National Walkability Index, public domain, at block-group level, combined with our own editorial rating. We do not license or scrape Walk Score. Method on the methodology page.

Climate and winter

  • NOAA / National Weather Service, Duluth office, for snowfall normals and records. The 1991 to 2020 seasonal snowfall normal of 90.2 inches, and the 140.1 inch record season of 2022 to 2023, both come from here.
  • Minnesota DNR State Climatology Office.

Places of worship

  • Diocesan parish directories and diocesan sites.
  • Denominational synod and conference directories, including the ELCA Northeastern Minnesota Synod.
  • Denominational locators for bodies including the LCMS and the AALC/TAALC.
  • Denominational statistical services, including the United Methodist Church's own data service, which is how we confirm closures.
  • Congregations' own live websites.

Commercial church directories are never used as sole evidence that a congregation is currently operating. See the methodology page for why.

Organizations and nonprofits

  • IRS Form 990 Exempt Organization Business Master File, public domain and filterable by ZIP.
  • Chambers of commerce and the City of Duluth community-club roster.
  • Candid / GuideStar profiles.

History, place names and local color

  • MNopedia, from the Minnesota Historical Society.
  • Zenith City Press and Perfect Duluth Day for local history, cited and rewritten.
  • Duluth News Tribune, including its "Our Neighborhoods" reporting.
  • The Ojibwe People's Dictionary (University of Minnesota Department of American Indian Studies and University Libraries) for Ojibwe language and place-name glosses.
  • City of Duluth for officially recorded Ojibwe place names.
  • Treaty texts and Treaties Matter (Minnesota Humanities Center and partners) for treaty history.
  • 1854 Treaty Authority for the administration of retained treaty rights in the ceded territory.
  • Minnesota Digital Library primary-source sets.

Public safety

  • Duluth Police Department annual reports, for citywide published trend data.

We cite city-published trends and do not characterize residents. See the fair-housing section of the methodology page.

Taxes and government

  • City of Duluth finance and auditor pages.
  • Minnesota Department of Revenue and Wisconsin Department of Revenue.
  • County assessor records for parcel-level tax bills, which is the only reliable way to compare property tax across the state line.

Images

Photography follows our imagery policy: owner-supplied images where provided, otherwise public-record sources (city, tourism bureau, MN/WI DNR, NPS, Creative Commons and public domain) with attribution recorded on the image, and AI-generated images only for generic atmospheric use, labelled as such. We never present an AI-generated image as a photograph of a specific real property or named landmark, and we never depict identifiable real people.

What we deliberately do not use

  • Walk Score (licensed).
  • GreatSchools, Niche and similar licensed rating services.
  • AllTrails and Zillow listing content (terms prohibit scraping).
  • Commercial business and church directories as a sole source for whether something is currently open.

Corrections

If a source here is out of date, or a claim on a page does not match its citation, tell us what and where. We will fix it and update the reviewed date on the affected page.