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Place dossier plate
SheetSD-BROOKINGS-SD · Brookings, SD 23,710 pop · income 38th pct · 7 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 Brookings
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Brookings on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Huron · lowest
51,556
Huron · lowest
51,556 median HH income
35.9% of the leader · rank #1
Dennis Port · near
61,974
Dennis Port · near
61,974 median HH income
43.1% of the leader · rank #2
West Reading · near
61,974
West Reading · near
61,974 median HH income
43.1% of the leader · rank #3
Homestead · near
61,975
Homestead · near
61,975 median HH income
43.1% of the leader · rank #4
Brookings · this city
61,979
Brookings · this city
61,979 median HH income
43.1% of the leader · rank #5
Holbrook · near
61,979
Holbrook · near
61,979 median HH income
43.1% of the leader · rank #6
Chantilly · highest
143,786
Chantilly · highest
143,786 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 Brookings 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: 23,710.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Brookings - the verdict
Brookings ranks in the 38th percentile for household income and the 54th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
38th
percentile, household income
54th
percentile, home value
13th
percentile, median rent
54th
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: Brookings, SD
Brookings is a small city in South Dakota, home to 23,710 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Brookings report a median income of $61,979 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 6.0%. Brookings's housing stock carries a median value of $243,600, and the median resident age is 24.7 years. Educational attainment runs 49.7% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 66.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 127 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 27% from five years earlier. Brookings reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 1262.3 crimes per 100,000 residents, below the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Brookings's yearly average temperature at 43.3°F with 25.2 inches of precipitation per year and 35.8 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. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $990 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts South Dakota's average monthly utility costs around $200 (state average). The average commute for Brookings workers runs 10.6 minutes, with 74.6% driving alone and 10.1% working from home. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 26.8 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Brookings'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 climate and hazard context to schools and households to comparison shortlist to within-city variation to population change to housing and income to work and mobility to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Brookings, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What physical conditions frame life in Brookings?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 43.3°F, with 25.2 inches of precipitation and 35.8 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.
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.
What does the education layer cover for Brookings?
The NCES join finds 6 public schools within the city match. 49.7% 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.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Brookings?
Within South Dakota, the closest population matches are Watertown (22,859 residents, $62,721 income); Aberdeen (28,297 residents, $63,715 income); Mitchell (15,637 residents, $56,374 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are San Fernando, CA (23,716 residents); Munster, IN (23,733 residents); Taylors, SC (23,686 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.
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.
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 Brookings growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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 +1,985 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +8.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 127 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+8.5%
2025 estimate
25,355
2020 estimate
23,370
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in Brookings?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 6.0%, 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.
Household income
$61,979
Home value
$243,600
Value / income
3.9×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the journey to work look like in Brookings?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 74.6%. The reported mean trip to work is 10.6 minutes.
Public transit
0.6%
Work from home
10.1%
Drive alone
74.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 12,780 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Brookings?
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 1262.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 45% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1177.0
Violent rate
85.2
Total reported rate
1262.3
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Below median income · poverty 6.0% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
88.6 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, South Dakota average
B-
City profile score · Brookings, SD
67/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share A-
49.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime B
85 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate C
6.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$61,979
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Brookings profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 91/100 (A+) · 88.6 index
Bachelor's+ share: 84/100 (A-) · 49.7%
Violent crime: 74/100 (B) · 85 /100k
Poverty rate: 59/100 (C) · 6.0%
Household income: 37/100 (F) · $61,979
Where Brookings sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Brookings'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 - Brookings highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Brookings, SD (this city): home $243,600, crime 1,262/100k
San Fernando, CA : home $630,700, crime 2,542/100k
Munster, IN : home $312,000, crime 1,080/100k
Farmington, MN : home $345,100, crime 413/100k
Highland, IN : home $219,500, crime 1,694/100k
Watertown, SD : home $212,300, crime 1,328/100k
Aberdeen, SD : home $205,500, crime 1,678/100k
Mitchell, SD : home $182,000, crime 2,230/100k
Yankton, SD : home $202,300, crime 2,242/100k
Huron, SD : home $164,700, crime 1,805/100k
Pierre, SD : home $219,500, crime 2,496/100k
How does Brookings compare to other US cities?
Brookings measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income38% higher than other cities
Home value54% pricier than other cities
Median rent13% pricier than other cities
Safety54% 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: Brookings ranks #14 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 Brookings 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 Brookings near the bottom of South Dakota's cities
Among the 303 South Dakota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Brookings ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Brookings only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#140 of 285
51st percentile in South Dakota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 303
0th percentile in South Dakota
Median Home Value
#34 of 263
87th percentile in South Dakota
Poverty Rate
#156 of 302
48th percentile in South Dakota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#7 of 303
98th 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
38th percentile nationally for median household income · 54th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Brookings's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Brookings'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 Brookings's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$243,60046th percentilemore affordable than 46% 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
Brookings's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,493 of 15,516
More affordable than 32% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,922 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.9×, Brookings sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,493 of 15,516 and #1,922 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
$61,979Brookings, SD median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Brookings, 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 Brookings, SD.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)49.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)6.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)66.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
23,710
Median Income
$61,979
Median Home Value
$243,600
Median Age
24.7
Poverty Rate
6.0%
Labor force participation
66.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
49.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1262.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
85.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1177.0
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
43.3°F
Annual Precipitation
25.2"
Annual Snowfall
35.8"
Schools
Total Schools
6
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Brookings's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
23,370 residents
2021
23,535 residents
2022
23,945 residents
2023
24,223 residents
2024
24,853 residents
2025
25,355 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
127
housing units authorized
Single-Family
101
detached homes
Multifamily
26
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
5.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
173
69
104
$19.2M
2020
76
67
9
$11.8M
2021
89
63
26
$15.9M
2022
81
60
21
$14.3M
2023
82
69
13
$18.5M
2024
127
101
26
$29.1M
Permit volume decreased 27% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
10.6 minutes
Drive Alone
74.6%
Carpool
9.2%
Public Transit
0.6%
Walk
4.4%
Work from Home
10.1%
Other
1.1%
Based on 12,780 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 Brookings. 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 Brookings 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 Brookings sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Brookings 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.