The 10 Best Small Towns In South Dakota For 2024

You’ve seen these lists before. Best places to live in South Dakota. Best sururbs in South Dakota. Best counties in South Dakota.

Etc., etc., etc.

But they all focus on major cities and towns in the Mount Rushmore State, and no one pays attention to the little guy.

Well, that’s all about to change as we put together a list of the superb small towns in South Dakota based on numbers–not opinions or hearsay.

We’ll dive right into our methodology in the next section, but first, we thought you might want to know which places in South Dakota ranked the best based on Saturday Night Science.

Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table

What’s the best small town in South Dakota? Dakota Dunes is the best small town in South Dakota based on the most recent Census data. If you live in one of these small towns like Dakota Dunes, chances are, you’re not surprised. After all, you know how great you have it.

But for the rest of you–keep reading, and we’ll get to just why these small towns made our list.

For more reading on the Mount Rushmore State check out:

• Best Places To Live In South Dakota
• Cheapest Places To Live In South Dakota
• Most Dangerous Cities In South Dakota

Next 10 Cities

Methodology: How We Determined The Coolest Towns In South Dakota

We threw a lot of criteria at this report to get the best, most complete results of the best small towns in South Dakota possible.

Using the most recent data from the Census’s 2018-2022 American Community Survey, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Saturday Night Science, this is the criteria we used:

• Population Density (Higher is better)
• Lowest Unemployment Rates
• Housing costs (Higher is better. More demand.)
• Adjusted Median Income (Higher is better)
• Highly Educated Adults (Higher is better)
• Insurance Rates (Higher is better)
• Commute Times (Lower is better)

We looked at places with populations lower than 5,000 people and greater than 1,000, of which there were many – 58 to be exact.

We then ranked each place in each category with scores from 1 to 58, averaged them out, and the lowest scores went to our Best Small Towns in South Dakota. Top of that list — Dakota Dunes.

This is our tenth time ranking the best small places to live in South Dakota.

Summary: Science Can Tackle Any Issue, Even Small Ones

We said it once, and we’ll say it again — this list: it’s just science. We did the research, crunched the numbers, and it turns out these 15 small towns in South Dakota are the best in which to live.

And who can argue with that?

The best small towns in South Dakota are Dakota Dunes, Aurora, Crooks, Baltic, Volga, Britton, Dell Rapids, Hartford, Fort Pierre, and Groton.

If you’re curious, here are the worst small towns in South Dakota:

1. Porcupine
2. Oglala
3. Fort Thompson

For more South Dakota reading, check out:

• Best Places To Raise A Family In South Dakota
• Safest Places In South Dakota
• Worst Places To Live In South Dakota

Best Small Towns In South Dakota