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Place dossier plate
SheetND-DICKINSON-ND · Dickinson, ND 25,216 pop · income 58th pct · 9 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 Dickinson
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Dickinson on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Devils Lake · lowest
42,755
Devils Lake · lowest
42,755 median HH income
34.2% of the leader · rank #1
Dickinson · this city
76,964
Dickinson · this city
76,964 median HH income
61.5% of the leader · rank #2
Springville · near
76,964
Springville · near
76,964 median HH income
61.5% of the leader · rank #3
Brandon · near
76,964
Brandon · near
76,964 median HH income
61.5% of the leader · rank #4
Junction City · near
76,969
Junction City · near
76,969 median HH income
61.5% of the leader · rank #5
Whitewater · near
76,974
Whitewater · near
76,974 median HH income
61.5% of the leader · rank #6
Norco · highest
125,117
Norco · highest
125,117 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 Dickinson 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: 25,216.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Dickinson - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Dickinson places in the 58th percentile for household income and the 32nd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
58th
percentile, household income
56th
percentile, home value
7th
percentile, median rent
32nd
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: Dickinson, ND
25,216 people live in Dickinson, North Dakota - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $76,964 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 5.7%. Dickinson's housing stock carries a median value of $252,400, and the median resident age is 33.3 years. About 27.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 66.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 18 residential building permits were authorized in Dickinson (Construction Slowdown), down 71% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 2003.2 crimes per 100,000 residents, near the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Dickinson's yearly average temperature at 42.0°F with 17.6 inches of precipitation per year.
Living costs in North Dakota run below the national norm: the state registers 89.0 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $965 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in North Dakota run around $200, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 22.2 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Dickinson'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 work and mobility to housing and income to population change to climate and hazard context to comparison shortlist to within-city variation to reported crime to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Dickinson, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, commute-mode shares.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Dickinson?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 82.2%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
How far does income reach against housing in Dickinson?
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 3.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 5.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Dickinson?
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 Mandan (24,293 residents, $75,966 income); Williston (27,964 residents, $84,309 income); Jamestown (15,774 residents, $54,809 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Hazelwood, MO (25,214 residents); Norco, CA (25,211 residents); Dinuba, CA (25,201 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.
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.
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.
Population change
Is Dickinson growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +63 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 18 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
2020 estimate
25,807
2025 estimate
25,870
Period change
+0.2%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
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 42.0°F, with 17.6 inches of precipitation. 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.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
22.2
Annual precipitation
17.6 in
Mean temperature
42.0°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Dickinson?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2003.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 12% lower 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
2003.2
Violent rate
297.1
Property rate
1706.1
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the education layer cover for Dickinson?
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 12 public schools within the city match. 27.4% 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
5.7%
Bachelor's degree+
27.4%
Matched public schools
12
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Above median income · poverty 5.7% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
89.0 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, North Dakota average
C
City profile score · Dickinson, ND
59/100
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.
Poverty rate C+
5.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income C
$76,964
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share C-
27.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
297 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Dickinson profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 89/100 (A) · 89.0 index
Poverty rate: 61/100 (C+) · 5.7%
Household income: 56/100 (C) · $76,964
Bachelor's+ share: 53/100 (C-) · 27.4%
Violent crime: 33/100 (F) · 297 /100k
Where Dickinson sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Dickinson'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 - Dickinson highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Dickinson, ND (this city): home $252,400, crime 2,003/100k
Hazelwood, MO : home $154,900, crime 3,011/100k
Norco, CA : home $731,900, crime 2,688/100k
Dinuba, CA : home $267,300, crime 2,768/100k
Walker, MI : home $266,400, crime 2,667/100k
Barstow, CA : home $222,600, crime 3,747/100k
Mandan, ND : home $246,300, crime 2,869/100k
Williston, ND : home $262,700, crime 2,753/100k
Jamestown, ND : home $192,500, crime 1,342/100k
West Fargo, ND : home $302,200, crime 1,178/100k
Wahpeton, ND : home $164,600, crime 2,427/100k
How does Dickinson compare to other US cities?
Here's how Dickinson stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income58% higher than other cities
Home value56% pricier than other cities
Median rent7% pricier than other cities
Safety32% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just North Dakota and the picture shifts: Dickinson ranks #15 of 21 North Dakota cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Dickinson 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 Dickinson near the bottom of North Dakota's cities
Among the 246 North Dakota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Dickinson ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Dickinson only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#78 of 227
66th percentile in North Dakota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 246
0th percentile in North Dakota
Median Home Value
#25 of 226
89th percentile in North Dakota
Poverty Rate
#117 of 246
52nd percentile in North Dakota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#68 of 246
72nd 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
58th percentile nationally for median household income · 32nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Dickinson's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Dickinson'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 Dickinson's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$252,40044th percentilemore affordable than 44% 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
Dickinson's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#8,026 of 15,516
More affordable than 48% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,265 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.3×, Dickinson sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,026 of 15,516 and #1,265 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$76,964Dickinson, ND median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Dickinson, 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 Dickinson, ND.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)27.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)5.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)66.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
25,216
Median Income
$76,964
Median Home Value
$252,400
Median Age
33.3
Poverty Rate
5.7%
Labor force participation
66.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
27.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2003.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
297.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1706.1
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
42.0°F
Annual Precipitation
17.6"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
12
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Dickinson's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
25,807 residents
2021
25,171 residents
2022
24,928 residents
2023
25,182 residents
2024
25,647 residents
2025
25,870 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
18
housing units authorized
Single-Family
18
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
62
62
0
$20.2M
2020
45
45
0
$16.3M
2021
68
68
0
$28.0M
2022
61
61
0
$30.0M
2023
65
55
10
$34.5M
2024
18
18
0
$9.3M
Permit volume decreased 71% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
82.2%
Carpool
10.8%
Public Transit
0.1%
Walk
1.4%
Work from Home
4.8%
Other
0.7%
Based on 12,499 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 Dickinson. 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 Dickinson 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 Dickinson sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Dickinson 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.