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Safest Places to Live in South Dakota of February 2025

Elite Personal Finance
Last Update: December 1, 2024 • Living •

Located in the Midwestern United States, South Dakota borders North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana. It officially became a state in 1889.

With around 865,000 residents, it is the fifth least populous and the fifth least densely populated state. Its capital is Pierre, while the largest city is Sioux Falls, which has around 175,000 residents.

South Dakota is famous for Mount Rushmore, which is a great tourist attraction. The economy of South Dakota relies on agriculture, this state having a largely rural culture.

Ranking Criteria

ElitePersonalFinance extracted the latest data from the FBI crime statistics in the United States. We took violent crime as the main criteria. To get our score, we used this formula:

Crime Score = ( Total Number of Violent Crimes / Population ) * 1,000

This way, safer cities got the lowest score, and those more vulnerable to crimes got higher scores.

The cities that did not report crimes to the FBI and those under 3,000 residents were not included in the list.

10 Safest Places in South Dakota of February 2025

Rank: City: Population: Total Number of Crimes: Crime Score:
1 Brandon 10 244 7 0,68
2 Tea 5 898 8 1,36
3 Vermillion 10 833 21 1,94
4 Spearfish 11 842 23 1,94
5 Belle Fourche 5 600 11 1,96
6 Sturgis 6 983 14 2,00
7 Brookings 24 823 54 2,18
8 Madison 7 558 17 2,25
9 Watertown 22 233 67 3,01
10 Hot Springs 3 485 11 3,16

Crime Score in All Cities in South Dakota of February 2025

If your city didn’t make our list, you could see our full list of South Dakota cities.

We can’t compare crime rates in small and large cities. That’s why ElitePersonalFinance made a detailed analysis and narrowed the results according to population segments:

  • Under 3,000 Residents
  • 3,000 – 10,000 Residents
  • Over 10,000 Residents

(Other sites don’t include places with under 3,000 residents, but we included them.)

These are the results that we got:

Under 3,000 Residents

Rank: City: Population: Total Number of Crimes: Crime Score:
1 Faith 413 0 0,00
2 Rosholt 434 0 0,00
3 Murdo 442 0 0,00
4 Burke 586 0 0,00
5 Avon 597 0 0,00
6 Menno 622 0 0,00
7 Kimball 662 0 0,00
8 Alcester 744 0 0,00
9 Scotland 814 0 0,00
10 Centerville 879 0 0,00
11 Tyndall 1 036 0 0,00
12 Clark 1 056 0 0,00
13 Groton 1 506 0 0,00
14 Springfield 1 935 0 0,00
15 Beresford 1 989 0 0,00
16 Lead 2 958 2 0,68
17 Freeman 1 290 1 0,78
18 Sisseton 2 423 3 1,24
19 Philip 773 1 1,29
20 Tripp 630 1 1,59
21 Summerset 2 796 5 1,79
22 Lennox 2 476 5 2,02
23 North Sioux City 2 932 6 2,05
24 Elk Point 1 857 4 2,15
25 Deadwood 1 307 3 2,30
26 Wagner 1 561 4 2,56
27 Kadoka 714 2 2,80
28 Platte 1 263 4 3,17
29 Chamberlain 2 345 16 6,82
30 Flandreau 2 323 18 7,75
31 Martin 1 071 27 25,21

3,000 – 10,000 Residents

Rank: City: Population: Total Number of Crimes: Crime Score:
1 Tea 5 898 8 1,36
2 Belle Fourche 5 600 11 1,96
3 Sturgis 6 983 14 2,00
4 Madison 7 558 17 2,25
5 Hot Springs 3 485 11 3,16
6 Canton 3 521 12 3,41
7 Mobridge 3 550 13 3,66

Over 10,000 Residents

Rank: City: Population: Total Number of Crimes: Crime Score:
1 Brandon 10 244 7 0,68
2 Vermillion 10 833 21 1,94
3 Spearfish 11 842 23 1,94
4 Brookings 24 823 54 2,18
5 Watertown 22 233 67 3,01
6 Mitchell 15 733 59 3,75
7 Box Elder 10 077 42 4,17
8 Huron 13 840 58 4,19
9 Pierre 14 018 65 4,64
10 Sioux Falls 185 628 897 4,83
11 Aberdeen 28 870 160 5,54
12 Yankton 14 730 86 5,84
13 Rapid City 76 343 540 7,07

How safe do you feel?

Is your city safe enough? Are you worried because of the crime rate in your town? Do you have any thoughts on safety levels in the country?

If you want to share anything, feel free to leave a comment. That way, you can help us understand your perspective better.

Thank you!

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