Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetSD-MILLER-SD · Miller, SD 1,346 pop · income 22nd pct · 2 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 Miller
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Miller on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Espino comuni… · lowest
23,787
Espino comuni… · lowest
23,787 median HH income
33.2% of the leader · rank #1
Unionville · near
51,771
Unionville · near
51,771 median HH income
72.3% of the leader · rank #2
Loretto · near
51,771
Loretto · near
51,771 median HH income
72.3% of the leader · rank #3
Miller · this city
51,774
Miller · this city
51,774 median HH income
72.3% of the leader · rank #4
Midfield · near
51,776
Midfield · near
51,776 median HH income
72.3% of the leader · rank #5
College Stati… · near
51,776
College Stati… · near
51,776 median HH income
72.3% of the leader · rank #6
Platte · highest
71,641
Platte · highest
71,641 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 Miller 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: 1,346.
Nationally, Miller sits in the 22nd percentile for household income and the 99th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
22nd
percentile, household income
22nd
percentile, home value
13th
percentile, median rent
99th
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: Miller, SD
Miller is a small town in South Dakota, home to 1,346 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Miller households earn a median of $51,774 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 2.8%. Miller's housing stock carries a median value of $135,100, and the median resident age is 45.9 years. Educational attainment runs 26.0% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 58.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 0 residential units authorized here in 2024 (No Permits). Miller reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 0.0 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 45.2°F with 22.3 inches of precipitation per year and 43.7 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. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts South Dakota's average monthly utility costs around $200 (state average). 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 Miller'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 population change to within-city variation to climate and hazard context to schools and households to reported crime to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Miller, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
Is Miller growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -31 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 0 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 downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
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.
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 45.2°F, with 22.3 inches of precipitation and 43.7 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 Miller?
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 Gettysburg (1,344 residents, $59,667 income); Clear Lake (1,333 residents, $65,398 income); Gregory (1,330 residents, $47,629 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Culver, IN (1,346 residents); Espino comunidad, PR (1,346 residents); Grace, ID (1,345 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 Miller?
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. 26.0% 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
2.8%
Bachelor's degree+
26.0%
Matched public schools
4
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Miller?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 0.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 100% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Total reported rate
0.0
Violent rate
0.0
Property rate
0.0
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the journey to work look like in Miller?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 82.3%. 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.
Drive alone
82.3%
Work from home
6.0%
Public transit
0.5%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 617 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in Miller?
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 2.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 2.8%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.6×
Home value
$135,100
Household income
$51,774
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, South Dakota average
B-
City profile score · Miller, 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.
Violent crime A+
0 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger 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.
Poverty rate A-
2.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share C-
26.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$51,774
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Miller profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 97/100 (A+) · 0 /100k
Cost of living: 91/100 (A+) · 88.6 index
Poverty rate: 80/100 (A-) · 2.8%
Bachelor's+ share: 51/100 (C-) · 26.0%
Household income: 23/100 (F) · $51,774
How does Miller compare to other US cities?
Miller measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income22% higher than other cities
Home value22% pricier than other cities
Median rent13% pricier than other cities
Safety99% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at South Dakota, Miller ranks #1 of 34 South Dakota cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Miller 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 Miller near the bottom of South Dakota's cities
Among the 303 South Dakota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Miller ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Miller only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#214 of 285
25th percentile in South Dakota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 303
0th percentile in South Dakota
Median Home Value
#119 of 263
55th percentile in South Dakota
Poverty Rate
#213 of 302
29th percentile in South Dakota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#86 of 303
72nd 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
22nd percentile nationally for median household income · 99th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Miller's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Miller'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 Miller's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$135,100Among the most affordablemore affordable than 78% 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
Miller's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,557 of 15,516
More affordable than 71% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,051 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.6×, Miller sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,557 of 15,516 and #4,051 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
$51,774Miller, SD median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Miller, 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 Miller, SD.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)26.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)2.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)58.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,346
Median Income
$51,774
Median Home Value
$135,100
Median Age
45.9
Poverty Rate
2.8%
Labor force participation
58.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
26.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
0.0
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
45.2°F
Annual Precipitation
22.3"
Annual Snowfall
43.7"
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
Miller's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,344 residents
2021
1,318 residents
2022
1,326 residents
2023
1,325 residents
2024
1,316 residents
2025
1,313 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
Total Permits (2024)
0
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
0
0
0
-
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
82.3%
Carpool
2.8%
Public Transit
0.5%
Walk
7.8%
Work from Home
6.0%
Other
0.6%
Based on 617 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 Miller. 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 Miller 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 Miller sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Miller 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.