Deadwood, SD carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 181% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Deadwood, SD shows violent crime at 990.8 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,406.2 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 181% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade F from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
F safety grade
990.8/100K violent
2406.2/100K property
+181% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Deadwood, SD
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window higher
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 77.3 per 100,000 in 2020 to 990.8 in 2024 (+1181.1%). The highest observed value was 990.8 in 2024 and the lowest 77.3 in 2020. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Small-count caution
The violent-crime count is small enough that the derived rate is unstable
Deadwood reported 14 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 1,413. At this volume one additional or one fewer report moves the per-100,000 rate noticeably, so the figure is better read as a data point than as a precise measurement, and year-to-year swings here are expected.
Position in the state cohort
Deadwood reported the highest violent-crime rate among comparable South Dakota cities
At 990.8 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Deadwood ranks 1 of 39 — above 38 of the 38 other South Dakota cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +409.2% against the cohort median of 194.6. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Comparable rate records
Deadwood's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the South Dakota cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Deadwood's 990.8 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Rapid City (718.9), Wagner (639.7), Sioux Falls (526.7), Centerville (516.5). These are same-year agency submissions that pass the same completeness screen, not a claim that the cities have identical conditions. They make the cohort position above checkable against named records instead of a generic state average.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 29.2% of the 48 Part I offenses reported in Deadwood for 2024, against a median of 15.9% across comparable South Dakota cities — a gap of 13.2 points. Offense mix is shaped by which agencies report and how incidents are classified as well as by the underlying offenses, so it describes the reported record rather than a settled difference in conditions.
Property counts dominate Deadwood's FBI UCR Table 8 municipal row. Per-100,000 rates use the reporting-year population on that row; cities that fail the completeness test stay out of rate rankings. A citywide figure rarely describes any single neighbourhood inside the municipal boundary.
Based on 14 reported violent incidents in a population of 1,413. At this volume, one additional or one fewer report can shift the rate and letter grade noticeably; small-city crime counts are inherently more volatile year to year than large-city counts, so treat this grade as a data point, not a precise ranking.
On a small municipal row, small denominators make rates sensitive to a handful of incidents. Figures are reported totals, not neighbourhood advice.
Deadwood's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 4.9 Census sq mi, Deadwood logged 6.9 property and 2.8 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Deadwood's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (58% of 48 offenses; mix index 4,158).
Violent offenses are 29% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (4.9 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
+113.7%
463.7 → 990.8/100K
Property Crime Rate
-20.2%
3013.9 → 2406.2/100K
Property offenses lead Deadwood's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs SD
Property Crime
34
2406.2
1535.5
Larceny-Theft
28
1981.6
-
Burglary
5
353.9
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
1
70.8
-
Arson
0
0
-
Violent Crime
14
990.8
320
Aggravated Assault
12
849.3
-
Rape
2
141.5
-
Murder
0
0
-
Robbery
0
0
-
Deadwood Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Deadwood property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Deadwood Police Department
Reporting agency for Deadwood NIBRS-participating
Deadwood Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Deadwood's 48 reported offenses (5-year span 2020-2024).
This agency reports via NIBRS, the incident-based system that captures more detail per offense (multiple crimes per incident, victim/offender data) than the older summary counts.
Similar-Size Cities in South Dakota
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the South Dakota cities closest to Deadwood in population. Their populations run from 785 to 2,054, against 1,413 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Deadwood reported 14 violent crimes and 34 property crimes, for a total of 48 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Deadwood?
From 2023 to 2024, Deadwood's violent crime rate increased by 113.7%, and the property crime rate decreased by 20.2%.
What is the most common crime in Deadwood?
The most common crime type in Deadwood is larceny-theft, accounting for 58.3% of all reported crimes (28 incidents in 2024).
Micro-municipal read: Deadwood's FBI UCR Table 8 row (2024) is the only source for the rates above.
With a small population base, per-100,000 rates amplify sparse counts. Incomplete submissions are excluded from rankings. See FBI.gov UCR for the raw Table 8 file.
Disclaimer (small municipal): small-base rates are especially easy to misread. Informational only - not advice. Source: FBI UCR Program.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Deadwood, SD rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.