Area code 320

Area code 320 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan for most of the central part of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The numbering plan area (NPA) excludes the Twin Cities metro region. The area code was created in 1996, by a split of NPA 612, which stretched border-to-border from Wisconsin through the Twin Cities to South Dakota. 320 was the fourth Minnesota area code, and the first new one in the state in 42 years.

The growth of the Twin Cities placed high demand on telecommunication services, and the proliferation of cell phones, pagers, fax machines and dial-up Internet access caused rapid exhaustion of available telephone numbers. In the split, The Twin Cities region retained 612, with St. Cloud, Alexandria, and Willmar switching to 320.

In 1998, area code 612 was restricted to include only Minneapolis and a few inner suburbs after area code 651 was created in 1998.^[1] The 651 area borders Wisconsin, while area codes 763 and 952 were split from 612 in 2000. Area code 218 borders 320 to the north, and area code 507 covers southern Minnesota. Ironically, 320 now borders every Minnesota area code except 612—the area code which it first was created from.