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Place dossier plate
SheetSD-HILL-CITY-SD · Hill City, SD 699 pop · income 67th 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 Hill City
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Hill City on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Manderson-Whi… · lowest
22,596
Manderson-Whi… · lowest
22,596 median HH income
21.2% of the leader · rank #1
Delta Junction · near
85,694
Delta Junction · near
85,694 median HH income
80.2% of the leader · rank #2
Arcola · near
85,697
Arcola · near
85,697 median HH income
80.2% of the leader · rank #3
Eden · near
85,707
Eden · near
85,707 median HH income
80.2% of the leader · rank #4
Hill City · this city
85,714
Hill City · this city
85,714 median HH income
80.2% of the leader · rank #5
Azusa · near
85,727
Azusa · near
85,727 median HH income
80.3% of the leader · rank #6
North Topsail… · highest
106,818
North Topsail… · highest
106,818 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 Hill City 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: 699.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Hill City lands in the 67th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
67th
percentile, household income
55th
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: Hill City, SD
Hill City is a small town in South Dakota, home to 699 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $85,714 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 1.1%. Hill City's housing stock carries a median value of $246,700, and the median resident age is 34.9 years. Educational attainment runs 27.1% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 73.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 7 residential building permits were authorized in Hill City (Growing), up 17% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. NOAA puts Hill City's yearly average temperature at 43.9°F with 22.4 inches of precipitation per year and 66.6 inches of snowfall.
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 Hill City'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 schools and households to work and mobility to climate and hazard context to population change 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 Hill City, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, matched public-school count, local building permits, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Hill City?
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 3 public schools within the city match. 27.1% 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Hill City?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 74.7%. 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.
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 43.9°F, with 22.4 inches of precipitation and 66.6 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Hill City?
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 White River (712 residents, $80,625 income); Blucksberg Mountain (683 residents, $95,658 income); Highmore (717 residents, $99,500 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Raleigh, FL (699 residents); North Lynbrook, NY (699 residents); North Topsail Beach, NC (699 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.
Population change
Is Hill City growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +61 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +7.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 7 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.
2020 estimate
877
2025 estimate
938
Period change
+7.0%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in Hill City?
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 2.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 1.1%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.9×
Home value
$246,700
Household income
$85,714
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Above median income · poverty 1.1% (Very low poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
88.6 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, South Dakota average
B+
City profile score · Hill City, SD
76/100
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+
1.1%
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-
$85,714
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share C-
27.1%
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).
Hill City profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 92/100 (A+) · 1.1%
Cost of living: 91/100 (A+) · 88.6 index
Household income: 65/100 (B-) · $85,714
Bachelor's+ share: 53/100 (C-) · 27.1%
How does Hill City compare to other US cities?
Hill City measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income67% higher than other cities
Home value55% 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 Hill City 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 Hill City near the bottom of South Dakota's cities
Among the 303 South Dakota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Hill City ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Hill City only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#47 of 285
84th percentile in South Dakota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 303
0th percentile in South Dakota
Median Home Value
#32 of 263
88th percentile in South Dakota
Poverty Rate
#243 of 302
19th percentile in South Dakota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#76 of 303
75th 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
67th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Hill City's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$246,70045th percentilemore affordable than 45% 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
Hill City's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,999 of 15,516
More affordable than 61% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,162 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.9×, Hill City sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,999 of 15,516 and #5,162 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
$85,714Hill City, SD median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Hill City, 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 Hill City, SD.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)27.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)1.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)73.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
699
Median Income
$85,714
Median Home Value
$246,700
Median Age
34.9
Poverty Rate
1.1%
Labor force participation
73.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
27.1%
Climate
Avg Temperature
43.9°F
Annual Precipitation
22.4"
Annual Snowfall
66.6"
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Hill City's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
877 residents
2021
910 residents
2022
955 residents
2023
953 residents
2024
942 residents
2025
938 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Growing
Total Permits (2024)
7
housing units authorized
Single-Family
7
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
10
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
6
4
2
$1.1M
2020
19
19
0
$3.6M
2021
28
28
0
$7.4M
2022
4
4
0
$1.5M
2023
5
5
0
$1.3M
2024
7
7
0
$1.8M
Permit volume increased 17% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
74.7%
Carpool
4.3%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
6.7%
Work from Home
14.0%
Based on 372 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 Hill City. 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 Hill City 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 Hill City sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Hill City 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, 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.