The 10 Most Miserable Cities In South Dakota For 2023

Do you live in one of the most miserable places in South Dakota?

Only a third of South Dakotans say they are truly happy. That’s too bad, considering that folks in South Dakota don’t really have it too bad in the grand scheme of things.

But, we were curious – which South Dakota cities might be the most miserable? We’re about to find out, using Saturday Night Science and data.

After analyzing the 39 largest cities, we sadly present the most miserable cities in the Mount Rushmore State.

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

Read on below to see how we crunched the numbers and how your town ranked. If you have a smile on your face, you probably don’t live in one of these cities.

Oh, and by the way, Spearfish is the happiest place in South Dakota.

For more South Dakota reading, check out:

• Best Places To Live In South Dakota
• Safest Places To Live In South Dakota

Methodology: How We Measured The Most Miserable Cities In The Mount Rushmore State

To rank the unhappiest places in South Dakota, we had to determine what criteria make people happy. It isn’t a stretch to assume that happy people earn great salaries, are relatively stress-free, and have a stable home life.

So we went to the Census’s American Community Survey 2017-2021 report for the happy criteria, flipped the list with Saturday Night Science, and it spit out the answer.

Like magic.

Here are the criteria we used to measure misery:

• Percentage of residents with a college degree
• Average commute times
• Unemployment rates
• Cost of living
• % of married couples
• % of families with kids
• Poverty rate

After we decided on the criteria, we gathered the data for the 39 places in South Dakota with over 2,000 people.

We then ranked each place from one to 39 for each of the seven criteria, with a score of one being the most miserable (Any ties were given to the larger place).

Next, we averaged the seven rankings into a Miserable Index for each place with the lowest overall Miserable Index “earning” the title “Most Miserable City In South Dakota.”

If you’d like to see the complete list of states, most miserable to happiest, scroll to the bottom of this post to see the unabridged chart.

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

There You Have It – The Least Happy Cities In South Dakota

As we said earlier, trying to determine the most miserable cities in South Dakota is usually a subjective matter.

But if you’re analyzing cities where people are not stable, where you’re stuck in traffic, and no one spent the time to go to college, then this is an accurate list.

If you’re curious enough, here are the happiest cities in South Dakota, according to science:

1. Spearfish
2. Pierre
3. Mitchell

For more South Dakota reading, check out:

• Best Places To Live In South Dakota
• Cheapest Places To Live In South Dakota
• Most Dangerous Cities In South Dakota
• Richest Cities In South Dakota
• Safest Places In South Dakota
• Worst Places To Live In South Dakota
• Most Expensive Places To Live In South Dakota

Miserable Cities In South Dakota For 2023