The 10 Most Boring Places In South Dakota For 2023


The most boring places in South Dakota are Harrisburg and Summerset for 2023 based on Saturday Night Science.

There’s no denying it: there are plenty of places in South Dakota that are downright beautiful and full of excitement.

Unfortunately, not all towns and cities in Mount Rushmore State are so lucky.

Just like in all U.S. States, there are definitely some boring places within South Dakota’s’ borders. You know the places where everyone has an AARP card and the most exciting thing they do all day is post a picture of their grandchild on Facebook.

Like Harrisburg, for instance. In our latest analysis, we found that this city was the most boring city in all of Oklahoma according to Saturday Night Science. But don’t feel bad if you’re a resident of Harrisburg. There are plenty of other boring, lackluster places in South Dakota as well.

Here they are. Try not to jump out of your seat with excitement.

The 10 Most Boring Places In South Dakota

  1. Harrisburg
  2. Summerset
  3. Box Elder
  4. Tea
  5. Beresford
  6. Canton
  7. Huron
  8. Hartford
  9. Brandon
  10. Elk Point

Don’t freak out, in fact, believe it not, a boring city is actually one a lot of people would like to call home.

Before you get all upset if your city’s name is on the list, rest assured that we didn’t use personal opinion when it comes to what classifies a city or town as “boring” or “exciting”. We crunched actual numbers to figure out which towns are statistically more boring.

Showing this data to you is the kind of thing that a real estate agent knows, but would never share.

For more South Dakota reading, check out:


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


The 10 Most Boring Places In South Dakota For 2023

Overall SnackAbility

7
/10
Population: 6,645
Average Age: 29.1
% Married: 35.0%
More on Harrisburg:  Cost Of Living

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10
Population: 2,875
Average Age: 33.2
% Married: 25.0%
More on Summerset:  | Crime Report

Box Elder, SD

Source: Wikipedia User Jeffrey Beall | CC BY 4.0
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 11,527
Average Age: 28.6
% Married: 13.0%
More on Box Elder:  Cost Of Living | Crime Report

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10
Population: 5,535
Average Age: 30.3
% Married: 35.0%
More on Tea:  Cost Of Living | Crime Report

Beresford, SD

Source: Wikipedia User Jon Platek | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

8
/10
Population: 2,359
Average Age: 36.4
% Married: 33.0%
More on Beresford:

Canton, SD

Source: Wikipedia User AlexiusHoratius | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10
Population: 3,054
Average Age: 35.6
% Married: 33.0%
More on Canton:  | Crime Report

Huron, SD

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10
Population: 14,060
Average Age: 33.8
% Married: 24.0%
More on Huron:  Cost Of Living | Crime Report

Hartford, SD

Source: Wikipedia User Jon Platek | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 3,263
Average Age: 38.7
% Married: 37.0%
More on Hartford:

Brandon, SD

Source: Wikipedia User TCN7JM | CC BY-SA 4.0
Overall SnackAbility

7
/10
Population: 10,745
Average Age: 36.5
% Married: 28.0%
More on Brandon:  Cost Of Living | Crime Report

Elk Point, SD

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10
Population: 2,248
Average Age: 34.2
% Married: 20.0%
More on Elk Point:

Methodology: How we determined the boring cities in the Mount Rushmore State

You would present the following case to your friends if you were argueing with them at a bar about the most boring place to live in South Dakota. And that’s why we call it Saturday Night Science.

Because our data speaks more truth than feelings.

To figure out how boring a place is, we factored in things we generally think make people exciting, and then we figure out which cities have the least number of those exciting people.

We used the U.S. American Community Census data to gather the information presented here. HSome of the things people tend to think of as making a city’s population boring include:

  • % of Population Over 25 (higher is more boring)
  • % of Married Household (higher is more boring)
  • Average Age (higher is more boring)
  • % of Households With Kids (higher is more boring)
  • Population density (lower is more boring)

Then, our algorithm generates than ranks each place in all of these categories. After a crunching of the numbers, a ranking of all of the cities appears listing them from most boring to most exciting.

For this ranking, we used every South Dakota city with at least 2,000 residents. This keeps us from prejudicing our rankings by including very small pockets of retired people.

Grab your rocker and hold on.

We updated this article for 2023, and it’s our tenth time ranking the most boring cities in South Dakota.

There You Have It – Now That You’re Asleep

On a ranking like this, there are usually no winners, but since South Dakota isn’t necessarily the most boring state in the United States, the cities on this ranking can at least take solace that there are, in fact, more boring cities in the country.

If you’re also curious enough, here are the most exciting places in South Dakota, according to science:

  1. Springfield
  2. Hot Springs
  3. Lead

For more South Dakota reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Most Boring Cities In South Dakota For 2023

Rank City Population Average Age
1 Harrisburg, SD 6,645 29.1
2 Summerset, SD 2,875 33.2
3 Box Elder, SD 11,527 28.6
4 Tea, SD 5,535 30.3
5 Beresford, SD 2,359 36.4
6 Canton, SD 3,054 35.6
7 Huron, SD 14,060 33.8
8 Hartford, SD 3,263 38.7
9 Brandon, SD 10,745 36.5
10 Elk Point, SD 2,248 34.2
11 Chamberlain, SD 2,400 38.1
12 Sisseton, SD 2,433 34.4
13 Madison, SD 6,388 36.2
14 Lennox, SD 2,617 38.1
15 Watertown, SD 22,577 38.2
16 Volga, SD 2,146 29.5
17 Flandreau, SD 2,298 36.8
18 Dell Rapids, SD 3,940 37.1
19 Fort Pierre, SD 2,426 41.7
20 Brookings, SD 23,432 24.4
21 Aberdeen, SD 28,500 35.5
22 Belle Fourche, SD 5,561 38.7
23 Spearfish, SD 12,031 36.8
24 Sioux Falls, SD 189,258 34.5
25 Pierre, SD 14,126 39.4
26 Milbank, SD 3,488 41.1
27 Mitchell, SD 15,677 38.5
28 Vermillion, SD 11,506 23.0
29 Yankton, SD 15,332 40.4
30 Sturgis, SD 7,088 40.9
31 Winner, SD 2,882 44.3
32 Redfield, SD 2,160 48.4
33 Mobridge, SD 3,215 41.4
34 Custer, SD 2,067 57.1
35 Lead, SD 2,989 52.5
36 Hot Springs, SD 3,407 54.9
37 Springfield, SD 2,108 37.0
About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.

5 thoughts on “The 10 Most Boring Places In South Dakota For 2023

  1. This is the laziest form of citation I’ve ever seen. If you were in college, you would fail the class immediately. You can NOT cite Wikipedia as you are doing. Wikipedia is a website that provides the citations for you at the bottom of the page. Those are the citation’s you need, not “Wikipedia.”

  2. Thank you for doing all the research that tells the rest of us the best places to live in SD to avoid excitement-seeking obnoxious drunken stoned young adults who don’t want to get married or have kids because kids would inconvenience them and their ‘selfie’ all-about-me arrogant big-headed lifestyles.

  3. Custer is boring big time. Didn’t have plans to live here very long. This town is way to small. Looking forward to moving on to different state and climate. And definitely more than 2000 in population.

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