Anoka County (/əˈnoʊkə/ ə-NOH-kə)^[2] is the fourth-most populous county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, its population was 363,887.^[3] The county seat and namesake of the county is the city of Anoka,^[4] which is derived from the Dakota word anoka meaning "on (or from) both sides", referring to its location on both banks of the Rum River.^[5][6] The largest city in the county is Blaine, the tenth-largest city in Minnesota and the sixth-largest Twin Cities suburb.

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Anoka County
County
The Anoka County Courthouse and Government Center in downtown Anoka, July 2009
Location within the U.S. state of Minnesota
Minnesota's location within the U.S.
Coordinates: 45°16′N 93°14′W
Country	United States
State	Minnesota
Founded	May 23, 1857[1]
Named for	City of Anoka
Seat	Anoka
Largest city	Blaine
Area
• Total	446 sq mi (1,160 km2)
• Land	423 sq mi (1,100 km2)
• Water	23 sq mi (60 km2)  5.2%
Population  (2020)
• Total	363,887
• Estimate  (2023)	372,441
• Density	862/sq mi (333/km2)
Time zone	UTC−6 (Central)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−5 (CDT)
Congressional districts	3rd, 5th, 6th
Website	www.co.anoka.mn.us

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Anoka County comprises the north portion of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul statistical area, the largest metropolitan area in the state and the 16th-largest in the United States with about 3.64 million residents.

The county is bordered by the counties of Isanti on the north, Chisago and Washington on the east, Hennepin and Ramsey on the south, Sherburne on the west, and the Mississippi River on the southwest. The Rum River cuts through the county and was the site of many early European settlements. It was a common route to the Mille Lacs Lake, the spiritual homeland of the Ojibwe people. Father Louis Hennepin traveled the river in his first exploration of the region.^[7] The area became a center of fur trade and logging as French and French Canadian communities grew in the cities of Anoka and Centerville.^[8] Organized in 1857, the county's southern border eventually met Minneapolis and has become a predominantly suburban area following the construction of Interstate 35W. The county is home to local Twin Cities destinations such as the Heights Theater in Columbia Heights and Northtown Mall and the National Sports Center in Blaine.

Anoka County was organized by an act of the Minnesota Territorial Legislature on May 23, 1857, the year prior to Minnesota's admission to the Union. It was formed from parts of Ramsey County and Benton County; the Rum River previously formed the line between the two counties. The boundaries were mainly the same as they are now, except for a small part of the southeastern tip along the Mississippi River and at the south, formerly known as Manomin County. It was a small portion that connected to Ramsey and occupied one-third of the congressional township. It was then attached to Anoka County by constitutional amendment November 2, 1869. It became known as Fridley in 1879.

The first European descendants to explore what is now Anoka County were Franciscan friar Louis Hennepin and his party. Fur traders soon began to settle in the area that is now Ramsey County. They settled on the Rum River and more people were attracted to the area now called Anoka.

The Mississippi River flows southeasterly along the county's southwestern boundary. The Rum River flows southerly through the western part of the county, discharging into the Mississippi at the county's southwestern boundary. The terrain consists of low, rolling, wooded hills.^[10] The terrain slopes to the south and east; its highest point is a small hillock 1.2 miles (1.9 km) east of the county's northwest corner, at 1,100 ft (340 m) ASL.^[11] Otherwise the terrain's highest point is along the western part of the north boundary line, at 1,083 ft (330 m) ASL.^[12] The county has a total area of 446 square miles (1,160 km²), of which 23 square miles (60 km²) (5.2%) are covered by water.^[13]

Anoka County has a hot-summer humid continental climate zone (Dfa in the Köppen climate classification),^[15] typical of southern parts of the Upper Midwest, and is situated in USDA plant hardiness zone 4b.^[16][17][18] As is typical in a continental climate, the difference between average temperatures in the coldest winter month and the warmest summer month is great: 60.1 °F (33.4 °C). In recent years, average temperatures in the county seat of Anoka have ranged from a low of 5 °F (−15 °C) in January to a high of 81 °F (27 °C) in July, although a record low of −50 °F (−46 °C) was recorded in January 2019 and a record high of 103 °F (39 °C) was recorded in July 1988. Average monthly precipitation ranged from 0.87 inches (22 mm) in February to 4.45 inches (113 mm) in July.^[14]

Anoka County was once one of the most Democratic suburban counties in any metropolitan area nationwide and one of the rare few to have trended Republican since in 21st century. On a national level, Anoka County has voted for the Republican presidential candidate from 2000 onward, though with the margins remaining within 3% outside of 2004 and 2016. However, incumbent Democratic-Farmer-Labor Senator Amy Klobuchar defeated Jim Newberger by over 20,000 votes here in the 2018 midterms; Klobuchar also won this county in 2006 and 2012. Despite this, Republican Karin Housley narrowly defeated Democrat Tina Smith in the concurrent Senate special election in 2018, despite Smith winning the overall election by a margin over 10 points.

School districts include:^[28]

• Anoka-Hennepin School District
• Centennial Public School District
• Columbia Heights Public School District
• Elk River School District
• Forest Lake Public School District
• Fridley Public School District
• Spring Lake Park Public Schools
• St. Francis Area Schools
• White Bear Lake School District

• Anoka County History Center
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Anoka County, Minnesota
• List of Minnesota placenames of Native American origin