Golden Valley, Minnesota

Golden Valley is a western first-ring suburb of Minneapolis in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. Its population was 22,552 at the 2020 census, and was estimated to be 21,263 in 2024. The city is mostly residential and is bordered by Interstate 394. Over 15% of it is parks or nature reserves. Minnesota State Highway 55 runs through the city, providing a direct route to downtown Minneapolis.

Golden Valley is the main corporate headquarters of General Mills, a major flour-milling and food-products company originally located in Minneapolis. It is the site of Pentair's U.S. headquarters and local NBC affiliate KARE. The city was also home to the former Minneapolis-Honeywell headquarters, which is now the Resideo Technologies corporate offices.

Golden Valley is located on the ancestral lands of the Dakota people. Ojibwe and Sioux tribes had encampments on nearby Medicine Lake. The first white settlers arrived in the early 1850s. Golden Valley was incorporated on December 17, 1886. In the early 20th century, it was mostly a farming community.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 10.544 square miles (27.31 km²), of which 0.340 sq mi (0.88 km²) (0.03% or 218 ac) is covered by water. The 45th parallel north runs through Golden Valley, coinciding roughly with Duluth Street.

Interstate 394, U.S. Highway 169, and Minnesota State Highways 55 and 100 are four of the main routes in the area.

Most children who live in Golden Valley attend school in the Robbinsdale School District ISD #281 or the Hopkins School District ISD #270, as all of the city's territory belongs to one or the other. Some students attend public schools in other districts chosen by their families under Minnesota's open-enrollment statute.

Golden Valley High School was founded in 1957, and the adjacent Golden Valley Middle School opened in 1964. Both closed in the early 1980s after the Golden Valley School District merged with the Hopkins School District. Carl Sandburg Junior High School opened in 1959. In 1988, it became Sandburg Middle School. In 1981, the Breck School, a private Episcopal school, purchased the former Golden Valley High School and Middle School property and moved from Minneapolis to the campus of the former Golden Valley schools.

King of Grace Lutheran School is a Christian preschool, elementary school, and middle school of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod in Golden Valley.