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Place dossier plate
SheetND-BISMARCK-ND · Bismarck, ND 74,146 pop · income 59th pct · 19 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Bismarck
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Bismarck on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Bowling Green · lowest
48,419
Bowling Green · lowest
48,419 median HH income
30.7% of the leader · rank #1
Lostine · near
77,604
Lostine · near
77,604 median HH income
49.2% of the leader · rank #2
Monterey Park · near
77,605
Monterey Park · near
77,605 median HH income
49.2% of the leader · rank #3
Bismarck · this city
77,608
Bismarck · this city
77,608 median HH income
49.2% of the leader · rank #4
Lebanon South · near
77,608
Lebanon South · near
77,608 median HH income
49.2% of the leader · rank #5
Hillcrest · near
77,609
Hillcrest · near
77,609 median HH income
49.2% of the leader · rank #6
Ellicott · highest
157,891
Ellicott · highest
157,891 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Bismarck on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 74,146.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Bismarck - the verdict
Bismarck ranks in the 59th percentile for household income and the 20th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
59th
percentile, household income
64th
percentile, home value
7th
percentile, median rent
20th
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Bismarck, ND
Bismarck is a small city in North Dakota, home to 74,146 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $77,608 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 6.3%. Typical homes in Bismarck are valued around $291,400, and the median resident age is 38.2 years. About 38.7% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 62.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 236 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 31% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 2677.8 in FBI UCR data, near the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 43.1°F with 19.1 inches of precipitation per year and 50.5 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in North Dakota run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts North Dakota at 89.0 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Below Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $965 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in North Dakota run around $200, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Commute times here average 14.4 minutes, with 81.1% driving alone and 7.0% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 22.2 out of 100 (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Bismarck's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from within-city variation to climate and hazard context to work and mobility to reported crime to housing and income to population change to comparison shortlist to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Bismarck, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, local building permits.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What can 19 Census tracts reveal inside Bismarck?
PlainCities matches 19 Census tracts to this city.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 43.1°F, with 19.1 inches of precipitation and 50.5 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for North Dakota is 22.2 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
What does the journey to work look like in Bismarck?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 81.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 14.4 minutes.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Which cities make useful reference points for Bismarck?
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
Within North Dakota, the closest population matches are Grand Forks (58,882 residents, $63,838 income); Minot (47,922 residents, $77,431 income); West Fargo (39,325 residents, $96,877 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Lauderhill, FL (73,961 residents); Bolingbrook, IL (73,813 residents); Ellicott, MD (73,737 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Bismarck?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2677.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 17% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
Total reported rate
2677.8
Violent rate
278.0
Property rate
2399.9
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Bismarck?
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 6.3%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.8×
Home value
$291,400
Household income
$77,608
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Is Bismarck growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +4,222 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +5.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 236 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
2020 estimate
73,741
2025 estimate
77,963
Period change
+5.7%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
The NCES join finds 28 public schools within the city match. 38.7% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
Poverty estimate
6.3%
Bachelor's degree+
38.7%
Matched public schools
28
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Above median income · poverty 6.3% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
89.0 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, North Dakota average
C+
City profile score · Bismarck, ND
62/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living A
89.0 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Bachelor's+ share B
38.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C
$77,608
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate C
6.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
278 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bismarck profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 89/100 (A) · 89.0 index
Bachelor's+ share: 73/100 (B) · 38.7%
Household income: 57/100 (C) · $77,608
Poverty rate: 57/100 (C) · 6.3%
Violent crime: 36/100 (F) · 278 /100k
Where Bismarck sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Bismarck's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Bismarck highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Bismarck, ND (this city): home $291,400, crime 2,678/100k
Bolingbrook, IL : home $295,500, crime 961/100k
Bowling Green, KY : home $232,100, crime 3,153/100k
Rock Hill, SC : home $267,400, crime 2,789/100k
Grand Forks, ND : home $243,300, crime 2,641/100k
Minot, ND : home $254,400, crime 1,722/100k
West Fargo, ND : home $302,200, crime 1,178/100k
Williston, ND : home $262,700, crime 2,753/100k
Dickinson, ND : home $252,400, crime 2,003/100k
Mandan, ND : home $246,300, crime 2,869/100k
How does Bismarck compare to other US cities?
Here's how Bismarck stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income59% higher than other cities
Home value64% pricier than other cities
Median rent7% pricier than other cities
Safety20% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at North Dakota, Bismarck ranks #18 of 21 North Dakota cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Bismarck against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to North Dakota only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
North Dakota-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Bismarck near the bottom of North Dakota's cities
Among the 246 North Dakota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Bismarck ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Bismarck only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#76 of 227
67th percentile in North Dakota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 246
0th percentile in North Dakota
Median Home Value
#14 of 226
94th percentile in North Dakota
Poverty Rate
#110 of 246
54th percentile in North Dakota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#18 of 246
93rd percentile in North Dakota
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within North Dakota only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
59th percentile nationally for median household income · 20th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Bismarck's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Bismarck's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Bismarck's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$291,40036th percentilemore affordable than 36% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. 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 U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Bismarck's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,891 of 15,516
More affordable than 36% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#272 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 3.8×, Bismarck sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,891 of 15,516 and #272 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$77,608Bismarck, ND median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Bismarck, ND median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Bismarck, ND.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)38.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)6.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)62.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
74,146
Median Income
$77,608
Median Home Value
$291,400
Median Age
38.2
Poverty Rate
6.3%
Labor force participation
62.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
38.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2677.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
278.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2399.9
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Climate
Avg Temperature
43.1°F
Annual Precipitation
19.1"
Annual Snowfall
50.5"
Schools
Total Schools
28
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Bismarck's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
73,741 residents
2021
74,489 residents
2022
75,391 residents
2023
76,097 residents
2024
77,284 residents
2025
77,963 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
236
housing units authorized
Single-Family
185
detached homes
Multifamily
51
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
344
218
126
$67.7M
2020
467
238
229
$93.4M
2021
542
243
299
$124.9M
2022
448
234
214
$95.8M
2023
179
111
68
$57.1M
2024
236
185
51
$83.7M
Permit volume decreased 31% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
14.4 minutes
Drive Alone
81.1%
Carpool
8.5%
Public Transit
0.2%
Walk
2.0%
Work from Home
7.0%
Other
1.2%
Based on 37,248 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
North Dakota statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $200
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across North Dakota at $200 (electricity about $90 , water and sewer about $40 ).
These are North Dakota statewide averages, not a meter reading for Bismarck. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
North Dakota's BEA cost-of-living index is 89.0 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Bismarck is $965/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to North Dakota statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 22.2 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a North Dakota statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Bismarck sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Bismarck compares to similar-size North Dakota cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.