Some of you might be asking yourself, at this very moment, is South Dakota a good place?
The answer is unequivocally yes… if you know where to locate the best counties to live in South Dakota.
Lucky for you, we’re here to help you identify the best counties to live in the Mount Rushmore State based on the most recently available data from the Census. And this isn’t our first rodeo — we’ve been using Saturday Night Science to rank places for years.
The question becomes if you wanted to relocate to the best part of South Dakota, where would you go? To answer that, we looked at crime, cost of living, and demographic data for all 65 counties in the state.
Stanley County is the county to be when it comes to living the good life in South Dakota. And you should avoid Todd County if you can — at least according to the data.
$87,712 median income · 0.5% unemployment
$99,166 median income · 1.7% unemployment
$80,441 median income · 0.9% unemployment
$89,636 median income · 3.0% unemployment
$74,635 median income · 0.8% unemployment
$81,395 median income · 1.0% unemployment
$72,578 median income · 0.0% unemployment
$78,156 median income · 0.3% unemployment
$87,101 median income · 0.5% unemployment
$76,808 median income · 3.0% unemployment
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is South Dakota’s statewide median.
South Dakota statewide median: $75,081
South Dakota statewide median: $317,148
South Dakota statewide median: 2.9%
On the map
Where South Dakota’s best counties are
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How do you determine which South Dakota county is the best?
To give you the best county in South Dakota, we have to look at a handful of metrics that signal the quality of a place. To do that, we made assumptions about what’s in a “best county” and what isn’t. For reference, we are trying to make the kind of argument you’d make at a bar using facts, Saturday Night Science.
With that in mind, we went to two of the best data sources on the internet. Namely, the American Community Survey data and FBI Crime data for the most recent period.
We paid particular attention to:
- Violent Crime Rates
- Property Crime Rates
- Median Home Values
- Median Income
- Unemployment Rates
- Adult Education Levels
- Health Insurance Coverage
- Poverty Rates
We then ranked each county in South Dakota across each of the criteria from one to 65, with one being the best.
Taking the average rank across all criteria, we created a quality of life score with the county posting the lowest overall score being the “Best County To Live In South Dakota.”
The result is some of the safest, quietest, and best counties to raise a family in the Mount Rushmore State.
We updated this article for 2026. This report is our eleventh time ranking the best counties to live in South Dakota.
Read on to see why Stanley County is the best county, while Todd County is probably in contention for being the worst county in South Dakota.
The full plate
Detailed List Of The Best Counties In South Dakota
Click any column to sort. Search by county name.
| Rank | County | Population | Median Income | Median Home Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stanley County | 3,015 | $87,712 | $312,917 |
| 2 | Lincoln County | 70,638 | $99,166 | $378,566 |
| 3 | Harding County | 1,148 | $80,441 | $275,936 |
| 4 | Union County | 17,081 | $89,636 | $353,490 |
| 5 | Hand County | 3,140 | $74,635 | $256,242 |
| 5 | Hughes County | 17,664 | $81,395 | $289,411 |
| 7 | Sully County | 1,526 | $72,578 | $278,457 |
| 8 | Marshall County | 4,344 | $78,156 | $234,505 |
| 9 | Hamlin County | 6,373 | $87,101 | $329,796 |
| 10 | Lake County | 10,972 | $76,808 | $306,912 |
| 11 | McCook County | 5,751 | $83,852 | $287,316 |
| 12 | Jerauld County | 1,772 | $73,750 | $242,971 |
| 13 | Custer County | 8,892 | $84,112 | $507,260 |
| 14 | Deuel County | 4,328 | $83,112 | $312,820 |
| 15 | Potter County | 2,388 | $72,045 | $232,681 |
| 16 | Codington County | 28,767 | $72,727 | $335,019 |
| 17 | Miner County | 2,300 | $76,140 | $193,715 |
| 17 | Meade County | 30,546 | $74,790 | $394,532 |
| 19 | Haakon County | 1,722 | $65,625 | $202,314 |
| 20 | Edmunds County | 4,048 | $81,630 | $223,899 |
| 21 | Sanborn County | 2,384 | $78,750 | $238,879 |
| 22 | Lawrence County | 27,233 | $73,384 | $449,279 |
| 23 | Kingsbury County | 5,244 | $74,000 | $252,217 |
| 24 | Turner County | 8,882 | $75,771 | $297,529 |
| 25 | Hanson County | 3,472 | $81,071 | $235,582 |
| 26 | Minnehaha County | 203,289 | $76,880 | $323,682 |
| 27 | Yankton County | 23,414 | $72,821 | $274,934 |
| 28 | Brookings County | 35,353 | $70,064 | $312,526 |
| 29 | Pennington County | 113,512 | $74,517 | $362,723 |
| 30 | Aurora County | 2,642 | $72,885 | $187,159 |
| 30 | Moody County | 6,397 | $78,427 | $293,836 |
| 32 | Butte County | 10,676 | $75,652 | $355,827 |
| 33 | Hutchinson County | 7,404 | $73,977 | $217,198 |
| 34 | Campbell County | 1,593 | $68,929 | $209,028 |
| 34 | Brule County | 5,283 | $73,720 | $246,697 |
| 36 | Douglas County | 2,828 | $86,442 | $205,641 |
| 37 | Hyde County | 1,191 | $73,472 | $223,753 |
| 38 | Spink County | 6,219 | $70,139 | $169,579 |
| 39 | Davison County | 19,952 | $66,208 | $246,851 |
| 40 | Brown County | 37,877 | $70,898 | $238,215 |
| 41 | Grant County | 7,563 | $75,028 | $233,712 |
| 42 | Day County | 5,437 | $66,033 | $251,188 |
| 43 | Bon Homme County | 7,044 | $64,435 | $172,895 |
| 44 | McPherson County | 2,145 | $66,906 | $105,470 |
| 45 | Fall River County | 7,258 | $67,917 | $273,966 |
| 46 | Clark County | 3,917 | $70,726 | $206,810 |
| 47 | Jones County | 1,004 | $65,119 | $172,004 |
| 48 | Gregory County | 4,016 | $62,917 | $172,374 |
| 49 | Perkins County | 3,001 | $66,908 | $175,637 |
| 50 | Beadle County | 19,309 | $67,681 | $184,430 |
| 51 | Clay County | 15,219 | $56,850 | $284,411 |
| 52 | Roberts County | 10,221 | $65,130 | $227,173 |
| 53 | Faulk County | 2,126 | $57,750 | $181,738 |
| 54 | Charles Mix County | 9,281 | $64,038 | $280,406 |
| 55 | Tripp County | 5,611 | $58,987 | $199,702 |
| 56 | Walworth County | 5,271 | $65,026 | $134,456 |
| 57 | Lyman County | 3,724 | $67,143 | $204,286 |
| 58 | Bennett County | 3,345 | $53,750 | $224,609 |
| 59 | Jackson County | 2,802 | $35,417 | $158,433 |
| 60 | Corson County | 3,806 | $46,406 | $175,444 |
| 61 | Ziebach County | 2,377 | $53,958 | $122,719 |
| 62 | Dewey County | 5,205 | $54,104 | $85,756 |
| 63 | Buffalo County | 1,808 | $47,045 | $145,144 |
| 64 | Mellette County | 1,943 | $54,076 | $103,621 |
| 65 | Todd County | 9,244 | $42,075 | $66,411 |
Source: U.S. Census ACS + FBI crime data via Saturday Night Science. All 65 South Dakota counties.
Summary
Summary: The Best Counties In South Dakota To Call Home For 2026
Living in South Dakota can vary from one part of the state to the next — who woulda thought?
The best counties in South Dakota are Stanley County, Lincoln County, Harding County, Union County, Hand County, Hughes County, Sully County, Marshall County, Hamlin County, and Lake County.
But now you know the outstanding parts and the parts to avoid, and that’s why you came here to learn at the end of the day.
You are welcome.
