Hillsboro sits in the fertile Red River Valley. Local agriculture has dominated the area's economy from the beginning. With its location on Interstate 29, halfway between the two metropolitan centers of Greater Grand Forks and Fargo-Moorhead, Hillsboro has seen steady population growth in recent years and has become somewhat of a bedroom community.
Hillsboro is known for having the oldest weekly newspaper in the state, the Hillsboro Banner.
As of the census of 2000, there were 1,563 people, 679 households, and 414 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,460.6 people per square mile (564.0/km²). There were 727 housing units at an average density of 679.4/sq mi (262.3/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 94.82% White, 0.19% African American, 2.05% Native American, 2.11% from other races, and 0.83% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.93% of the population.
There were 679 households out of which 30.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.5% were married couples living together, 6.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 38.9% were non-families. 36.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 20.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.23 and the average family size was 2.92.
In the city the population was spread out with 25.2% under the age of 18, 5.8% from 18 to 24, 25.7% from 25 to 44, 21.9% from 45 to 64, and 21.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there were 94.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.1 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $33,516, and the median income for a family was $42,357. Males had a median income of $30,607 versus $19,769 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,976. About 6.6% of families and 9.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.4% of those under age 18 and 15.0% of those age 65 or over.
Residents of Hillsboro have easy access to major population centers via Interstate 29. The Interstate runs on the western edge of the community and there is an interchange (Caledonia Avenue) that connects the Interstate to Hillsboro. U.S. Highway 81 runs through the community and also connects Hillsboro to Grand Forks and Fargo.
Like so many towns in the American Midwest, Hillsboro's streets are aligned in the grid pattern. In Hillsboro, routes that run north to south are called streets and routes that run east to west are called avenues.
The BNSF Railway, eventual successor to the Great Northern, continues to maintain tracks in Hillsboro that see a variety of freight trains every day as well as Amtrak's Empire Builder, which passes through without stopping in the early morning hours.
Hillsboro also has a small airport south of town with a landing strip which provides an area for crop dusters or small private airplanes to stop. However, residents have to travel either to Grand Forks or Fargo in order to take regularly scheduled flights to major airports.