Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetSD-BELLE-FOURCHE-SD · Belle Fourche, SD 5,741 pop · income 35th pct
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 Belle Fourche
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Belle Fourche on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Yabucoa zona… · lowest
17,511
Yabucoa zona… · lowest
17,511 median HH income
14.2% of the leader · rank #1
Newton · near
59,915
Newton · near
59,915 median HH income
48.5% of the leader · rank #2
Portville · near
59,917
Portville · near
59,917 median HH income
48.5% of the leader · rank #3
Elmira · near
59,917
Elmira · near
59,917 median HH income
48.5% of the leader · rank #4
Bonduel · near
59,917
Bonduel · near
59,917 median HH income
48.5% of the leader · rank #5
Belle Fourche · this city
59,920
Belle Fourche · this city
59,920 median HH income
48.5% of the leader · rank #6
Dakota Dunes · highest
123,438
Dakota Dunes · highest
123,438 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 Belle Fourche 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: 5,741.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Belle Fourche - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Belle Fourche places in the 35th percentile for household income and the 23rd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
35th
percentile, household income
39th
percentile, home value
13th
percentile, median rent
23rd
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: Belle Fourche, SD
South Dakota's Belle Fourche is a small town, with 5,741 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Belle Fourche report a median income of $59,920 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 6.6%. Belle Fourche's housing stock carries a median value of $188,800, and the median resident age is 36.8 years. 15.2% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 64.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 17 residential building permits were authorized in Belle Fourche (Building Boom), up 113% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 2451.7 incidents per 100,000 residents, near the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 47.9°F with 18.0 inches of precipitation per year and 42.2 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in South Dakota run below the national norm: the state registers 88.6 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $990 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts South Dakota's average monthly utility costs around $200 (state average). Natural-hazard exposure scores 26.8 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Belle Fourche'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 population change to comparison shortlist to housing and income to schools and households to climate and hazard context to reported crime to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Belle Fourche, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Is Belle Fourche growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +139 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +2.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 17 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Belle Fourche?
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 South Dakota, the closest population matches are Madison (6,158 residents, $62,180 income); Tea (6,339 residents, $104,643 income); Sturgis (7,111 residents, $51,101 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Monticello, KY (5,741 residents); Yabucoa zona urbana, PR (5,740 residents); Tontitown, AR (5,739 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Belle Fourche?
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 3.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 6.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the education layer cover for Belle Fourche?
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 5 public schools within the city match. 15.2% 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.
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.
Climate and hazard context
What physical conditions frame life in Belle Fourche?
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 47.9°F, with 18.0 inches of precipitation and 42.2 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for South Dakota is 26.8 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)
26.8
Annual precipitation
18.0 in
Mean temperature
47.9°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 Belle Fourche?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2451.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 8% 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
2451.7
Violent rate
151.1
Property rate
2300.6
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the journey to work look like in Belle Fourche?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 76.1%. 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.
Drive alone
76.1%
Work from home
6.0%
Public transit
0.4%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,805 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 6.6% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
88.6 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, South Dakota average
C-
City profile score · Belle Fourche, SD
52/100
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+
88.6 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Violent crime C
151 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate C
6.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$59,920
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
15.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Belle Fourche profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 91/100 (A+) · 88.6 index
Violent crime: 58/100 (C) · 151 /100k
Poverty rate: 55/100 (C) · 6.6%
Household income: 34/100 (F) · $59,920
Bachelor's+ share: 21/100 (F) · 15.2%
Where Belle Fourche sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Belle Fourche'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 - Belle Fourche highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Belle Fourche, SD (this city): home $188,800, crime 2,452/100k
Monticello, KY : home $125,800, crime 876/100k
Tontitown, AR : home $394,200, crime 655/100k
New Holland, PA : home $225,500, crime 783/100k
Central City, KY : home $140,700, crime 1,068/100k
Madison, SD : home $191,400, crime 939/100k
Tea, SD : home $305,300, crime 1,279/100k
Sturgis, SD : home $236,400, crime 1,984/100k
How does Belle Fourche compare to other US cities?
Where Belle Fourche sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income35% higher than other cities
Home value39% pricier than other cities
Median rent13% pricier than other cities
Safety23% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just South Dakota and the picture shifts: Belle Fourche ranks #29 of 34 South Dakota cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Belle Fourche against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to South Dakota only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
South Dakota-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Belle Fourche near the bottom of South Dakota's cities
Among the 303 South Dakota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Belle Fourche ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Belle Fourche only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#163 of 285
43rd percentile in South Dakota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 303
0th percentile in South Dakota
Median Home Value
#72 of 263
72nd percentile in South Dakota
Poverty Rate
#142 of 302
52nd percentile in South Dakota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#203 of 303
33rd percentile in South 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 South Dakota only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
35th percentile nationally for median household income · 23rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Belle Fourche's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Belle Fourche'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 Belle Fourche's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$188,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 61% 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
Belle Fourche's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#7,442 of 15,516
More affordable than 52% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#6,183 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.2×, Belle Fourche sits in the moderate band:
national rank #7,442 of 15,516 and #6,183 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$59,920Belle Fourche, SD median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Belle Fourche, SD median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Belle Fourche, SD.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)15.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)6.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)64.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
5,741
Median Income
$59,920
Median Home Value
$188,800
Median Age
36.8
Poverty Rate
6.6%
Labor force participation
64.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
15.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2451.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
151.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2300.6
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
47.9°F
Annual Precipitation
18.0"
Annual Snowfall
42.2"
Schools
Total Schools
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Belle Fourche's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
5,652 residents
2021
5,774 residents
2022
5,872 residents
2023
5,881 residents
2024
5,859 residents
2025
5,791 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
17
housing units authorized
Single-Family
17
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
8
8
0
$2.5M
2020
16
16
0
$4.4M
2021
32
29
3
$8.7M
2022
12
12
0
$4.3M
2023
9
9
0
$2.6M
2024
17
17
0
$5.4M
Permit volume increased 113% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.1%
Carpool
12.6%
Public Transit
0.4%
Walk
4.1%
Work from Home
6.0%
Other
0.8%
Based on 2,805 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
South Dakota statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $200
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across South Dakota at $200 (electricity about $95 , water and sewer about $40 ).
These are South Dakota statewide averages, not a meter reading for Belle Fourche. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
South Dakota's BEA cost-of-living index is 88.6 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Belle Fourche is $990/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to South Dakota statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 26.8 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a South Dakota statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Belle Fourche sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Belle Fourche compares to similar-size South 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.