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Place dossier plate
SheetSD-WAKPALA-SD · Wakpala, SD 159 pop · income 1st 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 Wakpala
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Wakpala on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Toa Baja zona… · lowest
22,436
Toa Baja zona… · lowest
22,436 median HH income
22.6% of the leader · rank #1
Vega Baja zon… · near
22,455
Vega Baja zon… · near
22,455 median HH income
22.6% of the leader · rank #2
Wakpala · this city
22,500
Wakpala · this city
22,500 median HH income
22.7% of the leader · rank #3
Gloster · near
22,500
Gloster · near
22,500 median HH income
22.7% of the leader · rank #4
Kopperston · near
22,500
Kopperston · near
22,500 median HH income
22.7% of the leader · rank #5
Corazón comun… · near
22,531
Corazón comun… · near
22,531 median HH income
22.7% of the leader · rank #6
Union Mills · highest
99,219
Union Mills · highest
99,219 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 Wakpala 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: 159.
Wakpala ranks in the 1st percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
1st
percentile, household income
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: Wakpala, SD
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 159 residents in Wakpala, a small town within South Dakota. The typical household in Wakpala brings in $22,500 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 81.3%. The median resident age is 26.4 years. 6.9% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 24.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 3 public schools according to NCES Common Core of 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. 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 Wakpala'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 comparison shortlist to schools and households to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Wakpala, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Wakpala?
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 Burbank (159 residents); Artesian (160 residents, $57,656 income); Astoria (160 residents, $46,667 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Roe, AR (159 residents); Seibert, CO (159 residents); Waiohinu, HI (159 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.
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. 6.9% 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Wakpala?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 84.6%. 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.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 81.3% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
88.6 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, South Dakota average
F
City profile score · Wakpala, SD
23/100
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.
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 F
$22,500
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
81.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
6.9%
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).
Wakpala profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 91/100 (A+) · 88.6 index
Household income: 0/100 (F) · $22,500
Poverty rate: 0/100 (F) · 81.3%
Bachelor's+ share: 0/100 (F) · 6.9%
How does Wakpala compare to other US cities?
Here's how Wakpala stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income1% higher 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 Wakpala 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 Wakpala near the bottom of South Dakota's cities
Among the 303 South Dakota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Wakpala ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Wakpala only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#278 of 285
2nd percentile in South Dakota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 303
0th percentile in South Dakota
Poverty Rate
#8 of 302
97th percentile in South Dakota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#265 of 303
13th 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
1st percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Income distribution context
$22,500Wakpala, SD median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Wakpala, 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 Wakpala, SD.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)6.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)81.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)24.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
159
Median Income
$22,500
Median Home Value
N/A
Median Age
26.4
Poverty Rate
81.3%
Labor force participation
24.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
6.9%
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
84.6%
Carpool
7.7%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
7.7%
Work from Home
0.0%
Based on 26 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 Wakpala. 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 Wakpala 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 Wakpala sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Wakpala 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.