State crime profile · 2024
South Dakota Crime Rates: Safest & Most Dangerous Cities
Crime data for 39 cities and 42 counties in South Dakota (SD), ranked safest to most dangerous from 141 reporting agencies.
- 320
- Violent / 100K
- 1,535.5
- Property / 100K
- 39
- Cities
- 42
- Counties
The verdict
South Dakota's 320 violent crimes per 100,000 runs 9% below the U.S. average, making it near the national middle.
- 320
- violent crimes per 100K
- -9%
- vs. the U.S. average
- 26th
- safest of 51 states & DC
- 1,535.5
- property crimes per 100K
How safe is South Dakota? FBI UCR data snapshot
South Dakota (SD) reported 2,959 violent crimes and 14,198 property crimes in 2024, based on FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program submissions from 141 law enforcement agencies. That translates to a statewide violent crime rate of 320 per 100,000 residents and a property crime rate of 1535.5 per 100,000 against a reporting population of 924,669. The PlainCrime dataset indexes 39 South Dakota cities and 42 counties, each with their own detail pages and local crime figures drawn from FBI UCR Tables 8 and 10.
The FBI's state-level summary reports violent and property crime as aggregate totals rather than broken out by individual offense type (murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, arson). For an offense-by-offense breakdown, see the individual city and county pages for South Dakota below, which draw on FBI UCR Tables 8 and 10 and do report each offense type separately.
Across 11 years of state-level UCR history (2014–2024), the violent crime rate moved from 316.3 to 320 per 100,000, a rise of 1.2%. City-level detail pages within South Dakota include safety grades (A+ to F), benchmarks against national averages, per-capita risk estimates, and multi-year trend tables for users comparing specific jurisdictions. All figures above are drawn from FBI UCR 2024 submissions; reporting completeness varies by agency, and the FBI periodically restates prior-year figures as late submissions arrive.
State figures roll up the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) submissions from local and county agencies across the state, then express them per 100,000 residents so one state can be compared with another. Statewide averages hide a great deal of variation: a handful of large cities often account for much of a state's reported violent crime, while most of its land area and population live with markedly lower rates. Reporting completeness also differs between states, so a year-over-year change can reflect which agencies filed data as much as any real shift on the ground. Read a state number as the broad backdrop, then drill into the city and county pages for the local detail that actually shapes day-to-day decisions.
How South Dakota ranks nationally
South Dakota vs. every U.S. state
Violent crime per 100,000 residents, FBI UCR 2024. Lower is safer.
320 49th percentile among 51 U.S. states
Each bar is a band of values; taller bars hold more U.S. states. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · 2024
Safest Cities
Top 50 by lowest violent crime rate
Most Dangerous Cities
Top 50 by highest violent crime rate
Crime Trends
Multi-year charts & analysis
Crime Trends
| Year | Population | Violent Crime | Rate | Property Crime | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 924,669 | 2,959 | 320 | 14,198 | 1535.5 |
| 2023 | 919,318 | 3,069 | 333.8 | 14,265 | 1551.7 |
| 2022 | 909,824 | 3,272 | 359.6 | 15,131 | 1663.1 |
| 2021 | 895,376 | 3,300 | 368.6 | 14,350 | 1602.7 |
| 2020 | 892,717 | 4,146 | 464.4 | 16,262 | 1821.6 |
| 2019 | 884,659 | 3,021 | 341.5 | 15,105 | 1707.4 |
| 2018 | 882,235 | 3,070 | 348 | 14,595 | 1654.3 |
| 2017 | 869,666 | 3,499 | 402.3 | 15,597 | 1793.4 |
| 2016 | 865,454 | 3,491 | 403.4 | 16,729 | 1933 |
| 2015 | 858,469 | 3,288 | 383 | 16,046 | 1869.1 |
| 2014 | 853,175 | 2,699 | 316.3 | 15,591 | 1827.4 |
Cities in South Dakota
Safest cities in South Dakota
Cities with 25,000+ residents, lowest violent crime per 100,000, FBI UCR 2024. Hover a bar for the exact rate.
- Aberdeen 267.8
Aberdeen
267.8 /100K
- Sioux Falls
Sioux Falls
526.7 /100K
- Rapid City
Rapid City
718.9 /100K
What this shows Aberdeen is the safest sizeable city in South Dakota, at 267.8 violent crimes per 100,000.
Highest violent-crime cities in South Dakota
Cities with 25,000+ residents, highest violent crime per 100,000, FBI UCR 2024. Hover a bar for the exact rate.
- Rapid City
Rapid City
718.9 /100K
- Sioux Falls
Sioux Falls
526.7 /100K
- Aberdeen 267.8
Aberdeen
267.8 /100K
What this shows Rapid City reports the highest big-city violent-crime rate in South Dakota, at 718.9 per 100,000.
| City | Population | Violent / 100K | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sioux Falls | 210,926 | 526.7 | F |
| Rapid City | 80,957 | 718.9 | F |
| Aberdeen | 28,004 | 267.8 | B |
| Brookings | 24,638 | 85.2 | A |
| Watertown | 23,417 | 303.2 | B |
| Yankton | 15,698 | 273.9 | C |
| Mitchell | 15,607 | 262.7 | C |
| Huron | 14,740 | 291.7 | C |
| Box Elder | 14,589 | 349.6 | C |
| Pierre | 13,822 | 506.4 | D |
| Spearfish | 13,657 | 263.6 | C |
| Vermillion | 12,110 | 181.7 | B |
| Brandon | 10,935 | 73.2 | A |
| Tea | 8,055 | 136.6 | A |
| Sturgis | 7,056 | 226.8 | B |
| Madison | 6,069 | 148.3 | A |
| Belle Fourche | 5,955 | 151.1 | B |
| Hot Springs | 3,686 | 189.9 | A |
| Mobridge | 3,217 | 279.8 | B |
| Lead | 3,054 | 163.7 | A |
| North Sioux City | 3,049 | 196.8 | B |
| Summerset | 3,008 | 66.5 | A |
| Winner | 2,914 | 137.3 | A |
| Lennox | 2,518 | 79.4 | A+ |
| Chamberlain | 2,497 | 440.5 | C |
| Sisseton | 2,401 | 208.2 | B |
| Flandreau | 2,353 | 170 | B |
| Beresford | 2,079 | 192.4 | B |
| Elk Point | 2,054 | 48.7 | A+ |
| Parkston | 1,539 | 65 | A+ |
| Deadwood | 1,413 | 990.8 | F |
| Wagner | 1,407 | 639.7 | F |
| Miller | 1,319 | 0 | A+ |
| Clark | 1,162 | 344.2 | B |
| Centerville | 968 | 516.5 | C |
| Whitewood | 962 | 207.9 | A |
| Scotland | 785 | 127.4 | A |
| Burke | 577 | 173.3 | A |
| Jefferson | 440 | 0 | A+ |
Counties in South Dakota
Largest counties in South Dakota, violent crime per 100K
Top 8 counties by population, violent crime per 100,000 residents. Hover a bar for the exact rate.
- Minnehaha 18.8
Minnehaha
18.8 /100K
- Pennington
Pennington
130 /100K
- Lincoln 32.2
Lincoln
32.2 /100K
- Brown 33.9
Brown
33.9 /100K
- Brookings 17.5
Brookings
17.5 /100K
- Meade
Meade
60.3 /100K
- Codington 24.7
Codington
24.7 /100K
- Lawrence 38.8
Lawrence
38.8 /100K
Nearby States
Compare South Dakota with neighboring states, or use the compare tool for side-by-side jurisdiction benchmarking.
Explore South Dakota crime data
Primary source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, Crime in the United States annual release. State-level trends cross-check against the FBI Crime Data Explorer (CDE) API.
Population figures for rate calculations reference U.S. Census Bureau estimates where FBI-reported populations are unavailable. Verify with Census.gov QuickFacts.
Read our methodology , how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Using PlainCrime rankings responsibly
Crime rankings are most useful when they sit alongside other community-quality signals, school performance, housing affordability, employment, and access to healthcare. A safer-than-average violent-crime rate in a small commuter suburb does not by itself make a city a better place to live; it is one data point among many. Likewise, a higher-than-average rate in a dense urban center may reflect that residents and visitors interact with police more often, not that the city is necessarily unsafe for its residents. We provide cross-links from each city profile to neighboring jurisdictions, state averages, and national benchmarks so you can read each number in context rather than in isolation.
For news outlets, researchers, and concerned residents who cite our rankings, the most defensible approach is to quote the per-100,000 rate, the reporting year, and the source agency in the same sentence. Avoid framing crime statistics as predictive, UCR data describes what was reported in a past year, not what will happen tomorrow. Where possible, pair our rankings with longitudinal trend data on the relevant city's profile page to show whether the rate is moving up, holding steady, or falling year over year.
Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on FBI Uniform Crime Reporting source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.