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Place dossier plate
SheetSD-LENNOX-SD · Lennox, SD 2,587 pop · income 58th 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 Lennox
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lennox on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Sisseton · lowest
44,477
Sisseton · lowest
44,477 median HH income
38.7% of the leader · rank #1
Petersburg · near
76,466
Petersburg · near
76,466 median HH income
66.5% of the leader · rank #2
Lathrop · near
76,468
Lathrop · near
76,468 median HH income
66.5% of the leader · rank #3
Conyngham · near
76,468
Conyngham · near
76,468 median HH income
66.5% of the leader · rank #4
Lennox · this city
76,477
Lennox · this city
76,477 median HH income
66.5% of the leader · rank #5
Bonnie Brae · near
76,483
Bonnie Brae · near
76,483 median HH income
66.5% of the leader · rank #6
Marthasville · highest
114,950
Marthasville · highest
114,950 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 Lennox 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: 2,587.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Lennox - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Lennox lands in the 58th percentile for household income and the 96th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
58th
percentile, household income
46th
percentile, home value
13th
percentile, median rent
96th
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: Lennox, SD
2,587 people live in Lennox, South Dakota - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Lennox brings in $76,477 a year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 8.0%. Lennox's housing stock carries a median value of $210,800, and the median resident age is 39.6 years. About 20.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 63.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 47 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Low Activity). Lennox reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 198.6 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in South Dakota run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, South Dakota scores 88.6 (Well Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $990 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in South Dakota run around $200, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. 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 Lennox'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 housing and income to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to population change to schools and households to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lennox, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, local building permits, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, 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.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Lennox?
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 8.0%, 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Lennox?
Within South Dakota, the closest population matches are Sisseton (2,593 residents, $44,477 income); Chamberlain (2,621 residents, $75,000 income); Fort Pierre (2,534 residents, $74,732 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Marthasville, MO (2,587 residents); West Dennis, MA (2,586 residents); Marshville, NC (2,586 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Lennox?
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 79.6%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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 +233 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +9.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 47 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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 Lennox?
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 20.9% 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
4
Bachelor's degree+
20.9%
Poverty estimate
8.0%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Lennox?
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 198.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 91% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
119.1
Violent rate
79.4
Total reported rate
198.6
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Above median income · poverty 8.0% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
88.6 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, South Dakota average
C+
City profile score · Lennox, SD
63/100
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 B+
79 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income C
$76,477
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
8.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
20.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Lennox profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 91/100 (A+) · 88.6 index
Violent crime: 76/100 (B+) · 79 /100k
Household income: 56/100 (C) · $76,477
Poverty rate: 48/100 (D) · 8.0%
Bachelor's+ share: 37/100 (F) · 20.9%
Where Lennox sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Lennox'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 - Lennox highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Lennox, SD (this city): home $210,800, crime 199/100k
Marshville, NC : home $147,100, crime 2,925/100k
Gervais, OR : home $330,400, crime 672/100k
Alburtis, PA : home $242,300, crime 350/100k
Sisseton, SD : home $111,900, crime 916/100k
Chamberlain, SD : home $195,300, crime 2,002/100k
Beresford, SD : home $219,800, crime 1,299/100k
Elk Point, SD : home $228,400, crime 633/100k
How does Lennox compare to other US cities?
Here's how Lennox stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income58% higher than other cities
Home value46% pricier than other cities
Median rent13% pricier than other cities
Safety96% 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: Lennox ranks #3 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 Lennox 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 Lennox near the bottom of South Dakota's cities
Among the 303 South Dakota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lennox ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lennox only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#66 of 285
77th percentile in South Dakota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 303
0th percentile in South Dakota
Median Home Value
#55 of 263
79th percentile in South Dakota
Poverty Rate
#119 of 302
60th percentile in South Dakota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#136 of 303
55th 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
58th percentile nationally for median household income · 96th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Lennox's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Lennox'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 Lennox's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$210,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 54% 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
Lennox's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,336 of 15,516
More affordable than 66% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,646 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.8×, Lennox sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,336 of 15,516 and #4,646 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
$76,477Lennox, SD median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lennox, 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 Lennox, SD.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)20.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)8.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)63.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,587
Median Income
$76,477
Median Home Value
$210,800
Median Age
39.6
Poverty Rate
8.0%
Labor force participation
63.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
20.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
198.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
79.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
119.1
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
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Lennox's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,424 residents
2021
2,411 residents
2022
2,471 residents
2023
2,486 residents
2024
2,532 residents
2025
2,657 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Low Activity
Total Permits (2024)
47
housing units authorized
Single-Family
27
detached homes
Multifamily
20
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
18.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
25
21
4
$6.3M
2022
36
36
0
$9.2M
2023
23
15
8
$5.8M
2024
47
27
20
$12.1M
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
79.6%
Carpool
7.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.9%
Work from Home
10.8%
Based on 1,289 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 Lennox. 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 Lennox 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 Lennox sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lennox 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.