The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Mankato, MN
Mankato is a city of 50,300 in Blue Earth County and the main city of the Mankato metro area, home to 104,300 · Updated November 2026
Is Mankato, MN safe?
Yes. An overall CrimeGrade™ of A- means crime in Mankato is low. Most US neighborhoods have little crime too, so Mankato sits near the middle: 51% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime, and 49% in neighborhoods with less. Violent crime grades A and property crime A-. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Mankato run from A+ to C+, so check the map below.
A-
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 842 of 1,000About as safe as the typical US neighborhoodi What this means
51% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Mankato as a whole, and 49% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Mankato scores 842.
Crime is concentrated in a small share of places, so most neighborhoods score high on the 0 to 1,000 scale. That is why a score in the 800s can still mean more crime than most US neighborhoods.
How to read the map: each area's color compares its crime with the people, homes and cars there, on one national scale, from green for the least crime to red for the most. Each area gets its own color, so a busy shopping center can show red while the homes beside it stay green. The interactive maps load faster on a strong connection. Compare high speed internet in Mankato, MN at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Mankato, and anyone thinking about buying or renting a home there.
Business and enterprise customers: this free map shows neighborhood areas. CrimeGrade™ business reports map crime at about 66-meter detail and estimate it for one address and type of business. See business reports
What stands out in Mankato
Burglary stands out among A-graded cities. For the typical resident of an A-graded US city, the figure is 1.2 burglaries a year per 1,000 residents; Mankato has 2.6.
Car thefts are uncommon. Mankato has car thefts at about half the US rate: 1.2 a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.7 nationally.
The safest and least safe parts of Mankato
Low crime is the norm across Mankato: 97% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and the rest in areas graded C. Grades across Mankato run from A+ to C+; 42% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
97%
A or B 97%C 3%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Mankato, the southwest side has the least crime and the center the most.
Is crime going up in Mankato?
Reported violent crime in Mankato peaked in 2021 and has fallen 27% since, back near its 2019 level. Property crime is down 24% from 2019. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults stayed at about 2.6 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts went from about 34 to 26 (US: 18). In 2024 alone, violent crime fell 17%.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
MankatoUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police department that serves Mankato. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Mankato
Violent, US
Property, Mankato
Property, US
2016
+4%
+4%
-6%
+15%
2017
-2%
+4%
-9%
+12%
2018
+27%
+0%
-1%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
-0%
+4%
-31%
-8%
2021
+35%
+6%
-27%
-10%
2022
-1%
+5%
-26%
-6%
2023
+19%
+2%
-18%
-7%
2024
-1%
-4%
-24%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Mankato
CrimeGrade™ estimates Mankato has about 46 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 24% more than the US as a whole and 53% more than Minnesota.
Overall crime
Violent crime
Property crime
Reported crimes a year, per 1,000 residents. These figures include simple assaults and vandalism, which the FBI's violent and property crime rates leave out.
Theft makes up about 44% of crime reported in Mankato. Assault is less common but costs more, because each one does more harm.
Each CrimeGrade™ compares a crime with what it affects: people for assaults and robbery, homes for burglary, parked cars for vehicle theft. Rates count crimes per 1,000 residents.
Select a crime's name to see its map above. CrimeGrade™ business reports map each crime at about 66-meter detail.
Where and when crime happens in Mankato
Mankato has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Mankato, 57% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often in parking lots and garages: 50% of them, against 31% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (57%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Parking lots and garages (49%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Parking lots and garages (50%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Homes (29%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (49%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Shares of the crimes reported to police, 2022 to 2024. Reports with no time recorded are left out of the times.
How Mankato compares with nearby cities
Mankato has the most crime of its 7 nearest cities.
Two things set Mankato apart: it has 3.8 parking-lot spaces per resident, against 2.0 nationally, and 15.7 stores and restaurants for every 1,000 residents, against 10.5 nationally. Places like that tend to report more theft; here theft sits near the national middle.
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.3.8 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Higher than for 93% of US city residents
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft.15.7 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Higher than for 90% of US city residents
Walk GradeBestNeighborhood's grade for getting through daily life on foot, traced along real walking routes to shops, schools and parks. Walkable places tend to report more theft and assault. 72% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.D+ (22 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 65% of US city residents
Show all 6
Transit serviceBuses and trains an hour at the evening rush. Places with busy transit tend to report more theft and robbery. BestNeighborhood's Transit Grade for Mankato: F (0 of 100).NoneUS: noneLower than for 84% of US city residents
JobsJobs draw daytime crowds. Places with many jobs tend to report more theft and robbery.63 for every 100 residentsUS: 45Higher than for 80% of US city residents
Lit at nightSatellite images show which neighborhoods are lit at night, a sign of busy streets and businesses. Brightly lit places tend to report more theft and vandalism.87% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 64% of US city residents
BestNeighborhood, a sister site of CrimeGrade™, ranks the neighborhoods of Mankato on shops, parks, home prices, getting around and more.
These traits tend to go with more or less crime; none of them causes it on its own. Sources: Census job counts and housing figures, OpenStreetMap and Overture business listings, CrimeGrade™ parking estimates, NASA night-light imagery, US Forest Service tree cover, EPA transit data and BestNeighborhood's Walk Grade.
What crime costs Mankato
Crime costs Mankato about $1,089 a year per household, counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, 10% less than the US figure of $1,205.
Cost of crime per resident, per year
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, which comes almost entirely from violent crime, the full cost comes to about $54 million a year, or $1,072 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$2.2 million
$43
Rape
$1.8 million
$36
Robbery
$210,000
$4
Assault
$7.6 million
$151
Burglary
$1.2 million
$23
Theft
$5.2 million
$103
Vehicle theft
$950,000
$19
Arson
$98,000
$2
Vandalism
$2.0 million
$39
Total
$21 million
$421
How CrimeGrade™ works
A CrimeGrade™ shows how much crime an area has compared with the rest of the country, from A+ for the least crime to F for the most. Every neighborhood in the US is graded on the same scale, so a B in Mankato means the same as a B anywhere else.
CrimeGrade™ starts from the crimes people report to police and measures each kind of crime against what it affects: people for assaults, homes for burglaries, parked cars for car thefts.
The rates on this page count crimes for every 1,000 people who live here, the way police departments report them.
Comparisons with US neighborhoods use the Census Bureau's block groups, small areas of about 1,400 residents, and count the people who live in each. The figures count crimes reported to police; many crimes, shoplifting above all, never are. Behind the grades, CrimeGrade™ tested 21,607 factors from 125 data families. For business owners, paid CrimeGrade™ location reports estimate crime at a single address for each type of business.
Where the numbers come from
Crime reports that police departments file with the FBI
State crime records and city crime data, where they are published
Published research on what crime costs victims and communities
These are estimates of reported crime for whole areas, not a record of what happened on any one street. CrimeGrade™ updates them once a year and provides them free and without guarantee. Check local sources before you rely on them for a decision.
Schools in Mankato, MN average a SchoolGrade of A-: 44% of students test proficient, against 51% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in Mankato on SchoolGrade
