The water of streams and rivers provided power to grist mills and sawmills throughout the county.

By the late 1860s, more than a dozen mills were churning out lumber near St. Anthony Falls and the county's population had surpassed 12,000.

In many ways, the falls' power was the vital link between the central city and the farmsteads throughout the county.

By 1883, railroads united Minneapolis with both the East and West coasts, and technical developments, especially in flour milling, brought rapid progress to the area.

For a decade, the "Mill City" was the flour-milling capital of the world and one of the largest lumber producers.

Minneapolis, with a population of 165,000 by 1890, had become a major American city, and by 1900, was firmly established as the hub of the Upper Midwest's industry and commerce.

By 1950, the amount of land devoted to agriculture had declined to 132,000 acres as development progressed in the suburbs.

During the 1950s and 1960s, many suburbs grew rapidly as housing developments, shopping centers, large school systems and growing industrialization replaced much of the open farmland.

Another wave of immigration—which began after the Vietnam War in the mid-1970s—marked a major change in the county's ethnic makeup.

This wave peaked in the 1980s when hundreds of refugees from Southeast Asia, often aided by local churches, resettled in Hennepin County.

Initially, the region was inhabited by Native American tribes, primarily the Dakota Sioux.

[21] The most common ancestries in Hennepin County are German, Irish, English, Norwegian and Swedish.

According to the 2010–2015 American Community Survey, the largest ancestry groups were German (26.3%), Norwegian (12.6%), Irish (10.8%), and Swedish (8.3%).

Besides English, languages with significant numbers of speakers in Hennepin County include Arabic, Hmong, Khmer, Lao, Russian, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

The office determines who and why a person died, which may lead to criminal charges being filed by prosecutors.

[42] The Hennepin County Attorney sets policies and priorities for prosecuting criminal cases, oversees child protection and child support cases, and provides legal advice and representation to county government.

It has voted Democratic in every election since 1964, except for 1972, when Richard Nixon won the county as part of a national landslide.

As of the 2018 estimate, there are twelve Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Hennepin County, five of which are located in Minneapolis.

According to the 2016 American Community Survey, the largest overall industries in Hennepin County are healthcare and social assistance (96,511 workers), manufacturing (80,324), and retail trade (75,861).

[50][51] It has been named the top park system in the country by the Trust for Public Land for five consecutive years as of 2017.

The byway is divided into seven districts: Downtown Riverfront, Mississippi River, Minnehaha, Chain of Lakes, Theodore Wirth, Victory Memorial, and Northeast.

Additionally, many other cities in the county are home to local community theaters, such as Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Orono, Osseo, and Plymouth.

Additionally, among major sports leagues, the Minnesota Lynx also play in Target Center.