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Radon is a colorless, odorless radioactive gas that naturally comes from the soil. It can enter any building—homes, offices, and schools—and result in a high indoor radon level. Radon gives off radioactive particles that, when breathed in, can damage the lining of the lungs. The U.S. Surgeon General has warned that radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States today. Radon accounts for about 21,000 lung cancer deaths every year and is a serious public health issue in Minnesota, where 2 in 5 of tested homes have radon levels that are a major health risk.

For more information, visit MN Public Health Data Access: Radon.

Data Sources
  • Minnesota Department of Health Indoor Air Unit Radon Test Data
Data Notes
  • Even if your county has a lower average radon level, it is important to test your own home since radon levels can vary widely even between homes in the same neighborhood.
  • These data include commercial and residential radon tests, although the majority are likely from single family homes, the tests often do not indicate whether they are commercial or residential.
  • The testing assumes that users (primarily property owners) followed the instructions for test kit deployment.
  • These data are incomplete; some of the radon data was not reported from the laboratories.
  • These data exclude most tests conducted with continuous radon monitors by professionals, such as home inspectors, that are used in real estate transactions.
  • Geographies mapped here are census tracts as determined by the U.S. Census Bureau. Census tracts are small, relatively permanent geographies that are smaller than counties, larger than census block groups, and roughly equivalent to a neighborhood. They are determined by the U.S. Census Bureau and are updated prior to each decennial census (last updated for 2010 census). Census tracts generally have a population between 1,200 and 8,000 people, with an optimum size of 4,000 people.
  • The American Community Survey Total Housing Units (2015-2019) measure was used to adjust for the number of buildings available for testing to be able to compare densely populated areas to less dense areas. A housing unit is a house, apartment, group of rooms, or single room occupied or intended for occupancy as separate living quarters.
  • The radon test addresses were cleaned by MDH Indoor Air Unit then geocoded using MNGeo software to identify a latitude/longitude and to assign each test to the intersecting county. A high rate of matches were returned, with a small percentage that matched either to a city or zip code centroid. Among the matched points for 2010-2020 radon tests data, 77% geocoded to the point address level, with 8% to the address level, 10% to the street level, and 5% to the city level. For mapping the census tracts, those geocoded to the city level or higher-level geography were excluded.
  • ‘No data available’ are non-residential areas where there are no radon tests conducted. These are often industrial areas or populations that live in group quarters.
  • Counties with less than 20 radon tests tested should be interpreted with caution; the data may be unstable because it can change with the addition or subtraction of one test. Unstable data are displayed with hash-marks on the map and an asterisk (*) next to the county name on the pop-up display and table.
  • For additional information pertaining to the data, please visit the "About the Radon" page.
For questions or more information regarding the mapping application, please contact the Minnesota Public Health Data Access
or via e-mail at: health.dataportal@state.mn.us

Table: Radon (2010-2020)

Region Census Tract Average Annual Properties Tested per 10,000 Average Annual Number of Properties Tested Number of Housing Units Median Radon Value pCi/LN Average (Geometric) Radon Value pCi/L Percent of Properties Tested ≥ 4 pCi/L in county
County Census Tract Average Annual Properties Tested per 10,000 Average Annual Number of Properties Tested Number of Housing Units Median Radon Value pCi/LN Average (Geometric) Radon Value pCi/L Percent of Properties Tested ≥ 4 pCi/L in county

Unstable data (*)

Feature

Unstable data (*)