Burnsville () is a city 15 miles (24 km) south of downtown Minneapolis in Dakota County, Minnesota. The city lies on bluff overlooking the south bank of the Minnesota River upstream from its confluence with the Mississippi River. Burnsville and nearby suburbs form the southern portion of Minneapolis–Saint Paul, the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the United States, with about 3.7 million residents. According to the 2020 census, the population is 64,317.Burnsville is home to a regional mall (Burnsville Center), a section of Murphy-Hanrehan Park Reserve, 310-foot (94 m) vertical ski peak Buck Hill, and part of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
Burnsville stands on land that once contained a village of Mdewakanton Dakota. Later, it became a rural Irish farming community. Burnsville became Minnesota's 14th-largest city in the 2020 census following the construction of Interstate 35.