The 10 Richest Cities In South Dakota For 2023


We analyzed 38 places in South Dakota to determine where the 1% live.

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Brandon, Fort Pierre, Tea: These cities aren’t just some of the best places to live in South Dakota. They are also home to some of the richest people in the Mount Rushmore State.

Brandon in particular houses the richest residents in the state thanks, in part, to a median household income of $96,367 and a ridiculously low poverty rate of 2.089942153386826%.

If you’re thinking of moving to one of these towns, you’ll probably need to start saving. The richest places in South Dakota share common characteristics such as having a genius level populous, sky high home prices, and a Pleasantville level of married couples.

How did we come up with these mega wealthy cities? We analyzed Census data from the 2017-2021 American Community Survey for the 39 places in South Dakota with more than 2,000 people.

Here are the 10 richest places in South Dakota for 2023:

  1. Brandon
  2. Fort Pierre
  3. Tea
  4. Dell Rapids
  5. Summerset
  6. Harrisburg
  7. Hartford
  8. Elk Point
  9. Lennox
  10. Yankton

For more on how we calculated the top ten, read on or skip to the end for the full list of the richest cities in South Dakota.

Rich people not your cup of tea? Feel free to check out some more reading about South Dakota:

The 10 Richest Cities In South Dakota For 2023

1. Brandon

Brandon, SD

Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 10,745
Rank Last Year: 1 (No Change)
Median Income: $96,367
Unemployment Rate: 1.5%
Poverty Rate: 2.1%
More on Brandon: Real Estate | Photos

2. Fort Pierre

Fort Pierre, SD

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 2,426
Rank Last Year: 2 (No Change)
Median Income: $77,545
Unemployment Rate: 0.3%
Poverty Rate: 4.4%
More on Fort Pierre: Real Estate | Photos

3. Tea

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 5,535
Rank Last Year: 3 (No Change)
Median Income: $91,544
Unemployment Rate: 1.3%
Poverty Rate: 2.9%
More on Tea: Real Estate

4. Dell Rapids

Dell Rapids, SD

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 3,940
Rank Last Year: 4 (No Change)
Median Income: $75,677
Unemployment Rate: 0.3%
Poverty Rate: 6.3%
More on Dell Rapids: Real Estate | Photos

5. Summerset

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 2,875
Rank Last Year: 7 (Up 2)
Median Income: $91,667
Unemployment Rate: 1.8%
Poverty Rate: 5.1%
More on Summerset: Real Estate

6. Harrisburg

Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 6,645
Rank Last Year: 5 (Down 1)
Median Income: $81,952
Unemployment Rate: 2.2%
Poverty Rate: 2.4%
More on Harrisburg: Real Estate

7. Hartford

Hartford, SD

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 3,263
Rank Last Year: 6 (Down 1)
Median Income: $86,492
Unemployment Rate: 3.0%
Poverty Rate: 3.2%
More on Hartford: Real Estate | Photos

8. Elk Point

Elk Point, SD

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 2,248
Rank Last Year: 11 (Up 3)
Median Income: $67,188
Unemployment Rate: 1.9%
Poverty Rate: 10.2%
More on Elk Point: Real Estate | Photos

9. Lennox

Lennox, SD

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 2,617
Rank Last Year: 13 (Up 4)
Median Income: $59,516
Unemployment Rate: 0.5%
Poverty Rate: 11.1%
More on Lennox: Real Estate | Photos

10. Yankton

Yankton, SD

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 15,332
Rank Last Year: 12 (Up 2)
Median Income: $59,190
Unemployment Rate: 1.0%
Poverty Rate: 10.4%
More on Yankton: Real Estate | Photos

Methodology: How We Determined The Richest Places In South Dakota For 2023

Map Of The Richest Places To Live In South Dakota
The first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they think about determining the richest places is to simply identify personal incomes. After all, rich people have really high salaries.

However, we don’t believe that one statistic wholly encompasses what it means to be one of the “richest places”. So we looked at this set of criteria from the newly released 2017-2021 American Community Survey:

  • Poverty Level
  • Median Household Income
  • Unemployment Rate

Median household income is the most digestible way to understand how rich a place really is. The unemployment rate tries to capture the prospects for more people to become rich. If more people are employed, the richer the future looks.

After we collected the data for all 39 places with more than 2,000 people in South Dakota, we ranked each place from 1 to 39 for each of the criteria, with 1 being the richest.

We then averaged all the rankings for a place into a “Rich Score” with the place having the lowest overall Rich Score, Brandon, crowned the “Richest City In South Dakota For 2023”. You can download the data here.

You can learn more about the top ten below or skip to the end to see the rankings for all 39 places.

Summary: The Wealthiest Places In South Dakota For 2023

Like we said earlier, when we set out to identify the richest places in South Dakota, we weren’t sure what we’d encounter, but it ended up being some of the best places to live in South Dakota.

When you look at the data, the cities and places mentioned above meet the criteria for being at the very top of the income ladder for everyone that lives there.

If you’re curious enough, here are the poorest cities in South Dakota, according to data:

Poorest: Winner
2nd Poorest: Sisseton
3rd Poorest: Hot Springs

For more South Dakota reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Richest Cities In South Dakota

Rank City RichScore Median Income
1 Brandon 3.33 $96,367
2 Fort Pierre 4.0 $77,545
3 Tea 4.33 $91,544
4 Dell Rapids 5.67 $75,677
5 Summerset 6.33 $91,667
6 Harrisburg 7.67 $81,952
7 Hartford 10.0 $86,492
8 Elk Point 13.0 $67,188
9 Lennox 13.33 $59,516
10 Yankton 13.67 $59,190
11 Beresford 14.33 $69,886
12 Redfield 14.33 $50,179
13 Sioux Falls 14.67 $66,761
14 Pierre 14.67 $73,787
15 Milbank 15.0 $60,997
16 Volga 16.0 $57,540
17 Box Elder 17.67 $62,972
18 Canton 17.67 $67,426
19 Watertown 19.0 $56,520
20 Sturgis 19.33 $46,402
21 Flandreau 22.33 $52,012
22 Spearfish 23.0 $52,258
23 Aberdeen 23.33 $58,439
24 Rapid City 23.67 $58,072
25 Chamberlain 24.0 $58,466
26 North Sioux City 24.33 $65,287
27 Madison 24.33 $58,564
28 Huron 24.67 $51,206
29 Mitchell 25.33 $48,164
30 Springfield 27.67 $46,705
31 Custer 27.67 $61,648
32 Brookings 28.67 $54,676
33 Belle Fourche 30.67 $46,151
34 Mobridge 30.67 $46,827
35 Lead 31.0 $43,125
36 Vermillion 35.0 $47,920
37 Hot Springs 35.33 $44,167
38 Sisseton 36.0 $40,599
39 Winner 38.33 $40,509

How Is The Area In ?

Editor’s Note: Data has been updated for 2023. This is our tenth time ranking the richest cities in South Dakota.

About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.