Mandan, North Dakota

Area Profile

24,522 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Mandan, in Morton County.

60out of 100
Area Score
Top 50% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 18% of 3,904 published cities73
GrowthTop 49% of 2,973 published cities51
Housing affordabilityTop 25% of 4,223 published cities93
Climate4183rd of 4,223 published cities50
Physical resilience2324th of 4,182 published cities52
Access4203rd of 4,226 published cities0
Economic stabilityTop 41% of 4,226 published cities65
The quick read

Mandan ranks in the top 18% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 2.4% and median household income of $71,780.

Residential permitting has slowed: 46 units authorized over the past twelve months, 28% below the prior year.

The nearest major airport is 192 miles away, which is farther than most measured US cities.

At a glance

Population
24,522
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$71,780
Top 43% nationally
Density
1,814/sq mi
13.5 sq mi of land
Median age
36.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Morton County
North Dakota
Metro area
Bismarck, ND
Nearest major airport
FAR
192 mi · Hector Intl
Median home value
$259,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 2.4% is lower than 99% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.5% over the past year, to 19,414 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$10,349$71,780Top 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$6,931$46,905Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate9.8%Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute19.1 minBottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher30.2%Top 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment19,414Bottom 24%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.0%Top 34%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.5%Top 44%June 2026
Labor force19,888Bottom 23%June 2026
Labor force participation70.9%Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$64,630Bottom 29%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$52,560Top 42%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.1%Bottom 41%June 2026
Unemployment rate2.4%Bottom 1%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202478k72k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $71,780 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 — Bismarck, ND
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Registered Nurses2,400$81,120
Retail Salespersons2,280$36,730
Fast Food and Counter Workers2,180$29,940
General and Operations Managers1,740$93,540
Home Health and Personal Care Aides1,680$38,850
Office Clerks, General1,470$50,400

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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Morton County, ND, which contains this city.

39% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 40% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.0 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
12
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
39.0%
Reading proficiency
40.3%
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
MANDAN HIGH SCHOOLMANDAN 11,17516.1
MANDAN MIDDLE SCHOOLMANDAN 11,00316.437%47%
FT LINCOLN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLMANDAN 145517.538%36%
RED TRAIL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLMANDAN 143818.359%53%
LEWIS AND CLARK ELEMENTARY SCHOOLMANDAN 137914.637%26%
LAKEWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOLMANDAN 128512.4
ROOSEVELT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLMANDAN 128415.834%38%
MARY STARK ELEMENTARY SCHOOLMANDAN 119311.424%24%
CUSTER ELEMENTARY SCHOOLMANDAN 11269.730%30%
BRAVE CENTER ACADEMYMANDAN 15025.0
SWEET BRIAR SCHOOLSWEET BRIAR 17289.3
MARMOT SCHOOL 6-12MARMOT SCHOOLS202.0

31.4% 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 North Dakota’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 $1,083 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.6 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
18.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,083
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$259,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.62Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate69.0%Bottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±24211,491Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$73$1,083Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$13,885$259,800Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.1%Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate8.9%Bottom 46%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
51/ 100
Top 49% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, measured from 2020 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 grown 2% since 2020, reaching 24,788 in 2024.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 1.9 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
46
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.9
Bottom 44% nationally
Year over year
−28%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202425k24k
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
20202021202220232024202513952
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−53%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 85°F and January a low of 2°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 19.1 inches, including 50.5 inches of snow.

-10°10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station BISMARCK, 7.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation19.1"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall50.5"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low2°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high85°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing59°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

52 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, cold wave and hail.

Overall hazard risk is lower than 74% of measured US cities.

HailHigh
Winter weatherModerate
Ice stormElevated
Cold waveModerate
WildfireModerate
Strong windModerate
Inland floodingModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: tornado, heat wave, drought, lightning, earthquake.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. 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.

Morton County records 3.8 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 15.2 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 15.5 per 100,000 residents in Morton County.

Homicide
3.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
15.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
15.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
32.5
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 Morton 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 Mandan rather than Mandan 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

No airport meeting the AreaProfile major-airport definition lies within 100 miles; the nearest is 192 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Hector IntlFAR192 mi9,001 ft
Rapid City RgnlRAP219 mi8,701 ft
Joe Foss FldFSD302 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.

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Area Score
60
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Other cities in Bismarck, ND

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
BismarckBurleigh County75,55663vs Mandan

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

Compare

Put Mandan side by side with a similar place.

Mandan vs BismarckMandan vs Dodge CityMandan vs DickinsonMandan vs Pierre

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
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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.

ZIP codes in Mandan

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
5855429,479$80,12057