South Dakota is known for many things: its breathtaking nature, its rugged lifestyle, a throwback to the Old West, and, of course, Mount Rushmore.
In a state known so well for having four of our most influential presidents peer down from the mountains, you’d certainly hope that it was living up to their standards.
Of course, the
Movoto Real Estate Blog can’t exactly say what Lincoln would have thought of modern-day South Dakota, but we think it is safe to say they would have been proud of the state’s low crime rates—especially in the 10 places below.
Here are the 10 safest places in the Mount Rushmore State, starting with the safest, Brookings:
1. City of Brookings
2. City of Brandon
3. City of Hot Springs
4. City of Lead
5. City of Sturgis
6. City of Mobridge
7. City of Aberdeen
8. City of Tea
9. City of Canton
10. City of Vermillion
To find out why each of these places has been forever memorialized in this ranking, keep on reading. We’ll go over the method of our analysis and then the specifics on our top 10 in the following paragraphs.
Our Methodology
Just like all of our Safest Places analyses, we created this ranking by first gathering a list of the most populous places in South Dakota from the 2010 U.S. Census.
We then used the
2012 FBI Uniform Crime Report to find crime data for these places, omitting any that did not have data reported to the Bureau. This left us with a total of 21 places, which we looked at in terms of the following:
Murder
Rape
Robbery
Assault
Burglary
Theft
Vehicle theft
We then divided these crimes into four categories:
- Murders
- Violent crimes
- Property crimes
- Total crimes
We calculated these crime rates per 100,000 residents in order to compare both large and smaller places fairly.
Then, each place was ranked with a score from one to 21 in each category, with one being the best and safest possible score.
Next, we weighted these rankings so that murders, violent crimes, and property crimes each accounted for 30 percent of the overall score and the total number of crimes accounted for 10 percent.
Finally, we averaged these weighted rankings into an overall
Big Deal Score, with the lowest score being the safest place.
To see more than just these top 10 safest places, you can head down to the bottom of the post. Otherwise, let’s take a closer look at our top 10, starting with our safest place, Brookings.
1. Brookings
It may come as something of a surprise that Brookings, a city with over 22,000 residents came in as the safest place in the state, rather than a smaller city like Brandon or Hot Springs.
A larger population clearly doesn’t mean more crime, necessarily.
As a matter of fact, residents in Brookings had the lowest chance in the state of being the victim of a crime: an impressive 1 in 467.
That’s because Brookings had the lowest total number of crimes in 2012: 36 violent crimes and 178 property crimes per 100,000 people. None of these were murders.
2. Brandon
It’s no wonder so many South Dakota residents opt to work in Sioux Falls, yet live in Brandon; the difference in their crime rates is staggering.
For example, in 2012, Brandon had just 11 violent crimes per 100,000 people. That’s the lowest number in the state. Sioux Falls, on the other hand, had 398.
Where Brandon had the second lowest number of both total crimes and property crimes (366 and 355 per 100,000, respectively), Sioux Falls had some of the highest at 3,582 and 3,184, respectively.
If you’re looking to live in the area without all the crime, Brandon might just be the city for you.
3. Hot Springs
There’s nothing mammoth about the number of crimes in this city.
In fact, of all of the places we looked at, Hot Springs residents had some of the smallest chances of being the victim of a crime: just 1 in 119.
That’s because Hot Springs had the third and sixth lowest numbers of property and violent crimes: 677 and 162 per 100,000 residents, respectively.
Of those 677 property crimes, there were 135 vehicle thefts, 325 thefts, and 217 burglaries. Of the 162 violent crimes, all were assaults, meaning there were no murders, no rapes, and no robberies reported for the entire year.
4. Lead
This city in Lawrence County ranked well pretty much across the board.
First of all, in 2012 it had just 1,285 total crimes per 100,000 people, the fourth lowest in this category. It also ranked fourth for its 1,160 property crimes per 100,000 people, and fifth for its 125 violent crimes per 100,000.
Of those violent crimes, once again, there were no murders, rapes, or robberies for the entire year, meaning all 125 were assaults.
5. Sturgis
This Meade County city is perhaps best known as the home to one of the largest motorcycle events in the world, so it may come as a surprise that it’s one of the safest places in the state.
Clearly, the reputation of bikers being dangerous or violent is a whole lot of hogwash, seeing as though Sturgis not only had a low number of crimes overall (2,214 per 100,000), but only 60 of these were violent. That’s the third lowest in the category.
Of those violent crimes, there were no murders, 15 rapes, no robberies, and 45 assaults per 100,000 residents.
6. Mobridge
Like the others in our top 10, this Walworth County city earned points for its complete lack of murder in 2012, but, better still, Mobridge had a low rate of violence in general.
There were just 167 violent crimes per 100,000 people in this city during 2012. one of these were murders or robberies, 56 were rapes, and 111 were assaults.
Additionally, Mobridge had 2,059 property crimes for a total of 2,226 crimes per 100,000 people for the year.
7. Aberdeen
Parents of students at Northern State University can rejoice knowing that their wolves are safe and sound—especially when it comes to property crimes.
Out of the 2,166 crimes per 100,000 people in 2012, just 1,907 were property crimes. Of those, 102 were vehicle thefts, 1,474 were thefts, and 331 were burglaries.
Additionally, Aberdeen saw 259 violent crimes that year, including no murders, 86 rapes, four robberies, and 169 assaults per 100,000 people.
8. Tea
With a name as cute as “Tea,” you’d hope that the city would be just as safe and quaint as it sounds. Luckily, in this case, it is.
In 2012, Tea had just 199 violent crimes (none of which were murders) and 2,239 property crimes per 100,000 for a total of 2,438 crimes per 100,000 people.
To put that into perspective for you, let’s take a look at another city with a great name, Pierre. (Great name, not such a great crime rate.)
In 2012, Pierre had a staggering 3,932 crimes per 100,000 people, including 3,618 property crimes and 314 violent crimes per 100,000, seven of which were murders.
9. Canton
This growing city has been named the South Dakota community of the year multiple times, and in looking at these low numbers for crime, it’s no wonder why.
With just 1,860 property crimes, Canton ranked No. 6 in this category, and seventh for its total number of crimes (2,171 per 100,000 people).
Unfortunately, there’s quite a gap between 1,830 and 2,171, which means that Canton actually had a fairly high number of violent crimes in 2012: 341 per 100,000 people.
Even though none of these included murder, it still counted against Canton’s overall standing, bumping it down to No. 9.
10. Vermillion
This college town had just 2,568 crimes per 100,000 people in 2012, including 2,291 property crimes and 277 violent crimes (none of which were murders).
To break that down further for you, those property crimes included 342 burglaries, 1,857 thefts, and just 92 vehicle thefts per 100,000. Of the violent crimes, again, there were no murders, 37 rapes, nine robberies, and 231 assaults per 100,000 residents.
Set In Stone
In choosing a place to live in the Mount Rushmore State, it’s important to know all the details before you set anything in stone—especially when it comes to your family’s safety.
We hope that this list will help you make the best decision on where to live in the state. After all, it’s a big one. Some might even say it’s monumental.
