Best PlacesMandan, ND Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Mandan, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Costs and crime both read low, and the nearest big city is a drive away. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Mandan ranks 820th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low crime by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Mandan
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
Mandan's strengths and weaknesses
Where Mandan ranks high
- Crime safetyBetter than 93% of cities
- Short commute18.3 minutes each way, better than 93% of cities
- Heat safetyBetter than 87% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 86% of cities
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 85% of cities
Where Mandan ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 2% of cities
- Tree shadeBetter than only 12% of cities
- TransitBetter than only 13% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than only 16% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 28% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Mandan
A household needs to earn about $86,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Mandan home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $79,482; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Mandan's effective rate of 1.04%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Mandan
Mandan runs younger than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Mandan.
Who works in Mandan, and how
Work in Mandan centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Mandan
Mandan has more parkland per resident than 94% of cities. That concentrates in some parts of Mandan and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Mandan, month by month
Mandan sees roughly 138 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 23, with lows near 8. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 23° | 15° | 8° |
| April | 53° | 40° | 30° |
| July | 84° | 71° | 60° |
| October | 57° | 45° | 36° |
Flying in and out of Mandan
The nearest airport, Bismarck Municipal, is about 8 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 393 miles away.
The best schools in and around Mandan
Schools across Mandan average a C, better than 32% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Sweet Briar SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Red Trail Elementary SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- S.g. Reinertsen ElementaryB+ · 51% proficient
Top middle schools
- Horizon Middle SchoolB+ · 49% proficient
- Mandan Middle SchoolB · 46% proficient
- Horizon Middle SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Top high schools
- Mandan High SchoolC · 32% proficient
- South Central Alternative High SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
- Brave Center AcademyD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Mandan school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Mandan measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Mandan against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Mandan suits
Families
Schools land around the 32nd percentile and crime safety beats 93%.
Retirees
The weather beats 79% of cities and health care access beats 71%.
Common questions about living in Mandan
Is Mandan a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Mandan ranks 820th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on low crime, short commutes, and heat safety, and lowest on distance from a big city and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Mandan expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $317,389. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $79,482 median income, cost of living beats 57% of cities.
Is Mandan safe?
Yes, Mandan is safer than 93% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $245 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Mandan?
July highs average about 84 degrees, and January highs near 23 with lows near 8. That works out to about 138 pleasant days a year, more than 79% of cities.
Is Mandan good for families?
Schools beat 32% of cities, crime safety beats 93%, and childcare runs $990 a month.
Compare Mandan with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Mandan. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Mandan represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Mandan detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Mandan: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Mandan: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Mandan: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Mandan: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Mandan detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.