Neuer was born in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. He attended Gesamtschule Berger Feld, like many other notable footballers, such as Mesut Özil. His brother Marcel is currently a football referee in the Verbandsliga. He got his first football when he was two. He had his first game on 3 March 1991, 24 days before his fifth birthday. Neuer's hero and idol as a child was fellow German and former Schalke goalkeeper Jens Lehmann.

Neuer is a Catholic, and lends his support to a Gelsenkirchen-based Catholic social action group which campaigns against child poverty as well as a Gelsenkirchen-based youth club run by the Amigonians.

Neuer started a charity foundation for children, named the Manuel Neuer Kids Foundation. In November 2011, he won €500,000 for charity in a celebrity edition of Wer wird Millionär?, the German version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

Neuer did the voiceover for character Frank McCay in the German version of the 2013 Disney animation Monsters University.