Nicollet County, MN

County Profile

34,411 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Nicollet County, MN.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

69out of 100
Area Score
Top 25% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 32% of 1,255 counties64
SchoolsTop 27% of 973 counties69
GrowthTop 35% of 1,226 counties58
Housing affordabilityTop 41% of 1,255 counties96
Climate1202nd of 1,254 counties51
Physical resilienceTop 33% of 1,255 counties73
Access1038th of 1,255 counties61
Economic stabilityTop 7% of 1,255 counties92
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.9% and median household income $79,756, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

In the public schools here, 49% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 15.3 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 15% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.4 times that income.

At a glance

Population
34,411
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$79,756
Top 18% nationally
Density
77/sq mi
448.5 sq mi of land
Median age
38.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Nicollet County
Minnesota
Metro area
Mankato, MN
Nearest major airport
MSP
62 mi · Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-Chamberlain
Median home value
$270,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.9% is lower than 62% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 0.8% over the past year, to 19,093 employed residents.

36% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 87% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,251$79,756Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$4,052$44,053Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate8.0%Bottom 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute17.7 minBottom 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher36.1%Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment19,093Bottom 21%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.0%Bottom 46%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.8%Bottom 46%June 2026
Labor force19,863Bottom 21%June 2026
Labor force participation68.4%Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.4%Top 32%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.9%Bottom 38%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.01.4
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.9% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202480k74k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $79,756 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Mankato, MN
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides3,170$37,560
Fast Food and Counter Workers1,860$30,000
Retail Salespersons1,780$35,350
Registered Nurses1,570$103,400
General and Operations Managers1,180$86,890
Cashiers1,140$33,530

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

49% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 58% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.3 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
23
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.3
across all schools here
Math proficiency
48.6%
Top 36% in Minnesota
Reading proficiency
57.7%
Top 11% in Minnesota
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Dakota Meadows Middle SchoolMANKATO PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT85219.432%62%
St. Peter High SchoolST. PETER PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT69219.2
St. Peter Middle SchoolST. PETER PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT61718.737%49%
HOOVER ELEMENTARYMANKATO PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT46115.955%57%
North Elementary SchoolST. PETER PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT42915.962%47%
MONROE ELEMENTARYMANKATO PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT36713.654%57%
South Elementary SchoolST. PETER PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT26913.4
BRIDGES COMMUNITY ELEMENTARYMANKATO PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT25116.779%76%
NICOLLET ELEMENTARY SCHOOLNICOLLET PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT15614.270%70%
Nicollet High SchoolNICOLLET PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT15111.6
ST. PETER ECSEST. PETER PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT615.5
FUTURES PROGRAMMANKATO PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT332.8

33.8% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Minnesota’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $970 takes 15% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.4 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
14.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$970
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$270,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.39Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate72.2%Bottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±6313,596Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$26$970Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$7,826$270,300Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income14.6%Bottom 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.4%Bottom 3%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
58/ 100
Top 35% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, measured from 2022 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has been broadly flat since 2020, at 34,493 in 2024.

62% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 4.2 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
146
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.2
Top 36% nationally
Year over year
+43%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
61.6%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202434k34k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
202220232024202519985
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−57%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 81°F and January a low of 4°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 32.8 inches.

-10°10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station NEW ULM 3SE, 9.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.1"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation32.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low4°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high81°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing58°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

Physical risk

73 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, strong wind and tornado.

Strong windHigh
Winter weatherModerate
HailModerate
TornadoHigh
Heat waveModerate
Inland floodingModerate
LightningModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, drought, landslide, ice storm, wildfire, earthquake.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Nicollet County records 0.0 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 8.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 8.5 per 100,000 residents in Nicollet County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
8.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
8.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
13.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Nicollet County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Nicollet County rather than Nicollet County itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 62 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-ChamberlainMSP62 mi11,006 ft
Rochester IntlRST92 mi9,034 ft
Joe Foss FldFSD135 mi9,000 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

Customize your score

What matters to you?

Choose what you weight most heavily. Nothing is saved to an account — your preferences stay in this browser, and the Area Score never changes.

Area Score
69
Your Score

Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.