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Place dossier plate
SheetSD-BRANDON-SD · Brandon, SD 10,996 pop · income 80th 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 Brandon
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Brandon on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Bolivar · lowest
44,603
Bolivar · lowest
44,603 median HH income
28.2% of the leader · rank #1
Peotone · near
104,792
Peotone · near
104,792 median HH income
66.2% of the leader · rank #2
Brandon · this city
104,806
Brandon · this city
104,806 median HH income
66.2% of the leader · rank #3
Spring Valley… · near
104,808
Spring Valley… · near
104,808 median HH income
66.2% of the leader · rank #4
Collinsville · near
104,808
Collinsville · near
104,808 median HH income
66.2% of the leader · rank #5
Huntertown · near
104,808
Huntertown · near
104,808 median HH income
66.2% of the leader · rank #6
Brandywine · highest
158,258
Brandywine · highest
158,258 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 Brandon 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: 10,996.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Brandon - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Brandon lands in the 80th percentile for household income and the 87th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
80th
percentile, household income
67th
percentile, home value
13th
percentile, median rent
87th
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: Brandon, SD
Brandon is a small town in South Dakota, home to 10,996 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $104,806 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 0.6%. Typical homes in Brandon are valued around $317,300, and the median resident age is 37.7 years. Educational attainment runs 40.6% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 75.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 193 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 436% from five years earlier. Brandon reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 448.1 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in South Dakota run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts South Dakota at 88.6 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Below Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $990 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in South Dakota run around $200, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. 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 Brandon'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 reported crime to housing and income to population change to work and mobility 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 Brandon, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates.
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.
1. Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Brandon?
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.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 448.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 80% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
How far does income reach against housing in Brandon?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 0.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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.
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +265 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +2.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 193 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Brandon?
Within South Dakota, the closest population matches are Vermillion (11,800 residents, $52,815 income); Box Elder (12,457 residents, $73,698 income); Spearfish (12,551 residents, $59,731 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Bolivar, MO (10,996 residents); Elgin, TX (10,996 residents); North Bellport, NY (10,999 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 5 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.
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.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Brandon?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 73.8%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
1.0%
Work from home
16.5%
Drive alone
73.8%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 6,024 workers age 16+.
The NCES join finds 9 public schools within the city match. 40.6% 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.
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.
Matched public schools
9
Bachelor's degree+
40.6%
Poverty estimate
0.6%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, South Dakota average
A-
City profile score · Brandon, SD
84/100
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.
Poverty rate A+
0.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
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.
Household income B+
$104,806
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime B+
73 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share B+
40.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Brandon profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 96/100 (A+) · 0.6%
Cost of living: 91/100 (A+) · 88.6 index
Household income: 79/100 (B+) · $104,806
Violent crime: 78/100 (B+) · 73 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 76/100 (B+) · 40.6%
Where Brandon sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Brandon'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 - Brandon highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Brandon, SD (this city): home $317,300, crime 448/100k
Bolivar, MO : home $188,700, crime 1,198/100k
Elgin, TX : home $267,900, crime 1,642/100k
Beachwood, NJ : home $307,500, crime 824/100k
Vermillion, SD : home $210,200, crime 1,346/100k
Box Elder, SD : home $271,800, crime 1,542/100k
Spearfish, SD : home $309,200, crime 2,087/100k
Pierre, SD : home $219,500, crime 2,496/100k
Huron, SD : home $164,700, crime 1,805/100k
How does Brandon compare to other US cities?
Brandon measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income80% higher than other cities
Home value67% pricier than other cities
Median rent13% pricier than other cities
Safety87% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to South Dakota alone, Brandon ranks #5 of 34 South Dakota cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Brandon 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 Brandon near the bottom of South Dakota's cities
Among the 303 South Dakota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Brandon ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Brandon only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#19 of 285
93rd percentile in South Dakota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 303
0th percentile in South Dakota
Median Home Value
#18 of 263
93rd percentile in South Dakota
Poverty Rate
#250 of 302
17th percentile in South Dakota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#18 of 303
94th 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
80th percentile nationally for median household income · 87th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Brandon's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Brandon'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 Brandon's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$317,30033rd percentilemore affordable than 33% 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
Brandon's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#6,841 of 15,516
More affordable than 56% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#946 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.0×, Brandon sits in the moderate band:
national rank #6,841 of 15,516 and #946 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
$104,806Brandon, SD median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Brandon, 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 Brandon, SD.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)40.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)0.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)75.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
10,996
Median Income
$104,806
Median Home Value
$317,300
Median Age
37.7
Poverty Rate
0.6%
Labor force participation
75.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
40.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
448.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
73.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
374.9
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.
Schools
Total Schools
9
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Brandon's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
11,041 residents
2021
11,009 residents
2022
11,096 residents
2023
10,933 residents
2024
10,877 residents
2025
11,306 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
193
housing units authorized
Single-Family
48
detached homes
Multifamily
145
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
17.6
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
36
36
0
$6.1M
2020
53
49
4
$8.5M
2021
84
84
0
$15.4M
2022
55
51
4
$18.1M
2023
14
14
0
$5.1M
2024
193
48
145
$27.0M
Permit volume increased 436% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
73.8%
Carpool
6.0%
Public Transit
1.0%
Walk
0.9%
Work from Home
16.5%
Other
1.8%
Based on 6,024 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 Brandon. 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 Brandon 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 Brandon sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Brandon 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, 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.