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Place dossier plate
SheetSD-HARRISBURG-SD · Harrisburg, SD 7,790 pop · income 79th pct · 13 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 Harrisburg
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Harrisburg on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Brevard · lowest
44,356
Brevard · lowest
44,356 median HH income
22.2% of the leader · rank #1
Fishhook · near
101,518
Fishhook · near
101,518 median HH income
50.7% of the leader · rank #2
Ruhenstroth · near
101,533
Ruhenstroth · near
101,533 median HH income
50.7% of the leader · rank #3
Harrisburg · this city
101,534
Harrisburg · this city
101,534 median HH income
50.7% of the leader · rank #4
Doctor Philli… · near
101,540
Doctor Philli… · near
101,540 median HH income
50.7% of the leader · rank #5
Mansfield Cen… · near
101,546
Mansfield Cen… · near
101,546 median HH income
50.7% of the leader · rank #6
Four Corners · highest
200,110
Four Corners · highest
200,110 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Harrisburg on ACS population and median household income
. 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: 7,790.
Nationally, Harrisburg sits in the 79th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
79th
percentile, household income
62nd
percentile, home value
13th
percentile, median rent
📝 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: Harrisburg, SD
7,790 people live in Harrisburg, South Dakota - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Harrisburg households earn a median of $101,534 annually, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 0.7%. Harrisburg's housing stock carries a median value of $281,400, and the median resident age is 30.2 years. 40.5% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 85.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 68 residential building permits were authorized in Harrisburg (Construction Slowdown), down 52% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data.
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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $990 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts South Dakota's average monthly utility costs around $200 (state average). 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 Harrisburg'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 within-city variation to population change to schools and households to housing and income to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Harrisburg, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, local building permits, commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Harrisburg?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 83.0%. 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.
What can 13 Census tracts reveal inside Harrisburg?
PlainCities matches 13 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.
Is Harrisburg growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +3,560 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +52.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 68 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 Harrisburg?
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.
Within South Dakota, the closest population matches are Rapid Valley (7,153 residents, $85,217 income); Sturgis (7,111 residents, $51,101 income); Tea (6,339 residents, $104,643 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Old Jefferson, LA (7,790 residents); Brattleboro, VT (7,793 residents); Four Corners, MD (7,785 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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Harrisburg?
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 4 public schools within the city match. 40.5% 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
0.7%
Bachelor's degree+
40.5%
Matched public schools
4
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
How far does income reach against housing in Harrisburg?
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 2.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 0.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.8×
Home value
$281,400
Household income
$101,534
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, South Dakota average
A
City profile score · Harrisburg, SD
85/100
4 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+
0.7%
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+
$101,534
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share B+
40.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Harrisburg profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 95/100 (A+) · 0.7%
Cost of living: 91/100 (A+) · 88.6 index
Household income: 78/100 (B+) · $101,534
Bachelor's+ share: 76/100 (B+) · 40.5%
How does Harrisburg compare to other US cities?
Where Harrisburg sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income79% higher than other cities
Home value62% pricier than other cities
Median rent13% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Harrisburg 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 Harrisburg near the bottom of South Dakota's cities
Among the 303 South Dakota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Harrisburg ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Harrisburg only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#26 of 285
91st percentile in South Dakota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 303
0th percentile in South Dakota
Median Home Value
#24 of 263
91st percentile in South Dakota
Poverty Rate
#248 of 302
18th percentile in South Dakota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#19 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
79th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Harrisburg's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$281,40038th percentilemore affordable than 38% 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
Harrisburg's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,427 of 15,516
More affordable than 65% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,724 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.8×, Harrisburg sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,427 of 15,516 and #4,724 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
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
$101,534Harrisburg, SD median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Harrisburg, 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 Harrisburg, SD.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)40.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)0.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)85.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
7,790
Median Income
$101,534
Median Home Value
$281,400
Median Age
30.2
Poverty Rate
0.7%
Labor force participation
85.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
40.5%
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Harrisburg's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
6,845 residents
2021
7,643 residents
2022
8,426 residents
2023
9,356 residents
2024
10,161 residents
2025
10,405 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
68
housing units authorized
Single-Family
68
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
8.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
142
88
54
$22.7M
2020
309
103
206
$40.1M
2021
288
172
116
$57.2M
2022
439
201
238
$77.1M
2023
312
152
160
$57.3M
2024
68
68
0
$19.2M
Permit volume decreased 52% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
83.0%
Carpool
3.7%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.4%
Work from Home
10.9%
Based on 4,458 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 Harrisburg. 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 Harrisburg 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 Harrisburg sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Harrisburg 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, 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.