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Place dossier plate
SheetSD-MITCHELL-SD · Mitchell, SD 15,637 pop · income 29th pct · 5 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 Mitchell
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Mitchell on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Opelousas · lowest
36,260
Opelousas · lowest
36,260 median HH income
22.8% of the leader · rank #1
Cloverleaf · near
56,371
Cloverleaf · near
56,371 median HH income
35.4% of the leader · rank #2
Quincy · near
56,372
Quincy · near
56,372 median HH income
35.4% of the leader · rank #3
Mitchell · this city
56,374
Mitchell · this city
56,374 median HH income
35.4% of the leader · rank #4
Calverton · near
56,375
Calverton · near
56,375 median HH income
35.4% of the leader · rank #5
Meadville · near
56,378
Meadville · near
56,378 median HH income
35.4% of the leader · rank #6
Bellmore · highest
159,158
Bellmore · highest
159,158 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 Mitchell 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: 15,637.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Mitchell - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Mitchell places in the 29th percentile for household income and the 27th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
29th
percentile, household income
37th
percentile, home value
13th
percentile, median rent
27th
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: Mitchell, SD
South Dakota's Mitchell is a small town, with 15,637 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $56,374 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 6.8%. Mitchell's housing stock carries a median value of $182,000, and the median resident age is 39.8 years. About 25.7% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 66.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 43 residential building permits were authorized in Mitchell (Rapid Growth), up 34% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 2229.8 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, near the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 47.9°F with 25.8 inches of precipitation per year and 40.6 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). 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). Commute times here average 11.0 minutes, with 77.3% driving alone and 8.5% working from home, per Census ACS commuting 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 Mitchell'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 within-city variation to population change to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to reported crime to housing and income to climate and hazard context to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Mitchell, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, local building permits.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Within-city variation
What can 5 Census tracts reveal inside Mitchell?
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 Mitchell growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +79 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 43 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Mitchell?
Within South Dakota, the closest population matches are Yankton (15,501 residents, $69,071 income); Huron (14,347 residents, $51,556 income); Pierre (14,008 residents, $74,053 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Summerfield, MD (15,635 residents); Scottsboro, AL (15,641 residents); Palmview, TX (15,650 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 Mitchell?
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 77.3%. The reported mean trip to work is 11.0 minutes.
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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Mitchell?
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 2229.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 2% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1967.1
Violent rate
262.7
Total reported rate
2229.8
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Mitchell?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 6.8%, 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
$56,374
Home value
$182,000
Value / income
3.2×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 47.9°F, with 25.8 inches of precipitation and 40.6 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.
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.
Mean temperature
47.9°F
Annual precipitation
25.8 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
26.8
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
The NCES join finds 10 public schools within the city match. 25.7% 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.
Matched public schools
10
Bachelor's degree+
25.7%
Poverty estimate
6.8%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Below median income · poverty 6.8% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
88.6 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, South Dakota average
C-
City profile score · Mitchell, SD
52/100
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.
Poverty rate C-
6.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share C-
25.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
263 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$56,374
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Mitchell profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 91/100 (A+) · 88.6 index
Poverty rate: 54/100 (C-) · 6.8%
Bachelor's+ share: 51/100 (C-) · 25.7%
Violent crime: 38/100 (F) · 263 /100k
Household income: 29/100 (F) · $56,374
Where Mitchell sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Mitchell'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 - Mitchell highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Mitchell, SD (this city): home $182,000, crime 2,230/100k
Scottsboro, AL : home $175,700, crime 1,974/100k
Palmview, TX : home $109,400, crime 1,939/100k
Opelousas, LA : home $113,000, crime 6,388/100k
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
Spearfish, SD : home $309,200, crime 2,087/100k
Box Elder, SD : home $271,800, crime 1,542/100k
Vermillion, SD : home $210,200, crime 1,346/100k
How does Mitchell compare to other US cities?
Here's how Mitchell stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income29% higher than other cities
Home value37% pricier than other cities
Median rent13% pricier than other cities
Safety27% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to South Dakota alone, Mitchell ranks #27 of 34 South Dakota cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Mitchell 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 Mitchell near the bottom of South Dakota's cities
Among the 303 South Dakota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Mitchell ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Mitchell only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#191 of 285
33rd percentile in South Dakota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 303
0th percentile in South Dakota
Median Home Value
#79 of 263
70th percentile in South Dakota
Poverty Rate
#140 of 302
54th percentile in South Dakota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#89 of 303
70th 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
29th percentile nationally for median household income · 27th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Mitchell's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Mitchell'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 Mitchell's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$182,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 63% 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
Mitchell's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#7,819 of 15,516
More affordable than 50% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,210 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.2×, Mitchell sits in the moderate band:
national rank #7,819 of 15,516 and #1,210 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
$56,374Mitchell, SD median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Mitchell, 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 Mitchell, SD.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)25.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)6.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)66.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
15,637
Median Income
$56,374
Median Home Value
$182,000
Median Age
39.8
Poverty Rate
6.8%
Labor force participation
66.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
25.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2229.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
262.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1967.1
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
47.9°F
Annual Precipitation
25.8"
Annual Snowfall
40.6"
Schools
Total Schools
10
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Mitchell's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
15,677 residents
2021
15,628 residents
2022
15,714 residents
2023
15,670 residents
2024
15,683 residents
2025
15,756 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
43
housing units authorized
Single-Family
31
detached homes
Multifamily
12
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
32
20
12
$5.2M
2020
33
17
16
$6.2M
2021
53
29
24
$10.2M
2022
53
32
21
$9.9M
2023
55
31
24
$9.5M
2024
43
31
12
$8.3M
Permit volume increased 34% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
11.0 minutes
Drive Alone
77.3%
Carpool
7.6%
Public Transit
1.1%
Walk
3.4%
Work from Home
8.5%
Other
2.1%
Based on 8,234 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 Mitchell. 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 Mitchell 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 Mitchell sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Mitchell 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.