Murders Per Capita By City In South Dakota For 2024


The cities with the most murder per capita in South Dakota are Spearfish and Box Elder for 2024.

Do you live in one of the murder capitals of South Dakota?

We all watch the news with horror when we hear about a homicide that happens not that far away from us. While a murder just blocks or even a couple of towns away from your house would make anyone uneasy, in the long run, most likely, where you live is relatively safe.

To find the cities in South Dakota with the most murders and the highest murder rates per capita, we used Saturday Night Science to compare the FBI crime data on murders for the 6 cities in the Mount Rushmore State with over 12,000 residents.


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


Cities With Highest Murder Rate In South Dakota Map

Cities With Highest Murder Rates In South Dakota

  1. Spearfish
  2. Box Elder
  3. Pierre
  4. Yankton
  5. Rapid City
  6. Sioux Falls

What city has the highest murder rate in South Dakota? The city with the highest murder rate in South Dakota is Spearfish with 8.0 murders per 100,000 people.

What is the city in South Dakota with highest number of murders? The city in South Dakota with the highest number of murders is Sioux Falls with 7 murders.

Read on below to see how we crunched the numbers and how your town in South Dakota ranked. There were ‘only’ 6 cities in South Dakota where a city reported a murder to the FBI, meaning 23 places had no murder.

For more reading on the Mount Rushmore State check out:

The 10 Murder Capitals Of South Dakota For 2024

Spearfish, SD

Source: Wikipedia User JERRYE AND ROY KLOTZ MD | CC BY-SA 3.0

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 12,517
Murders: 1 (4th Most)
Murders Per 100k: 8.0 (Most)
More on Spearfish: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living

Box Elder, SD

Source: Wikipedia User Jeffrey Beall | CC BY 4.0

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 12,710
Murders: 1 (4th Most)
Murders Per 100k: 7.9 (2nd Most)
More on Box Elder: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living

Pierre, SD

Source: Wikipedia User Alanscottwalker | CC BY-SA 3.0

Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 13,977
Murders: 1 (4th Most)
Murders Per 100k: 7.2 (3rd Most)
More on Pierre: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living

Yankton, SD

Source: Public domain

Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 15,507
Murders: 1 (4th Most)
Murders Per 100k: 6.4 (4th Most)
More on Yankton: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living

Rapid City, SD

Source: Wikipedia User tochichi | CC BY-SA 2.0

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 78,063
Murders: 5 (2nd Most)
Murders Per 100k: 6.4 (5th Most)
More on Rapid City: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living

Sioux Falls, SD

Source: Wikipedia User Jonathunder |

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 199,879
Murders: 7 (Most)
Murders Per 100k: 3.5 (6th Most)
More on Sioux Falls: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living

Methodology: How we calculated the murder capitals of South Dakota

While there are surveys and public polls on what cities in a state are the most dangerous, we wanted to rely on something other than speculation and opinion. Instead, we used Saturday Night Science to compare the hard numbers from the FBI’s last year of reporting. Specifically, we analyzed the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, which summarizes the number of murders in each city annually.

We only looked at every single city in South Dakota for which FBI data was available for the most recent FBI Crime In The United States. That left us with 6 cities to rank.

We took the number of murders per capita as the ranking factor. The place with the most murders per capita based on the most recent data is Spearfish. It is our tenth time ranking the places with the most murders per capita in South Dakota. We updated the list for 2024.

Summary: The Places With The Most Murders In South Dakota For 2024

If you’re looking at the places in South Dakota with the most murders, and where residents have the highest chances of being killed themselves, this is an accurate list. Again, these statistics are an indication of where crimes occur, not a statement about the effectiveness of the law enforcement in the areas they serve.

The cities with the highest murder per capita in South Dakota are Spearfish, Box Elder, Pierre, Yankton, Rapid City, and Sioux Falls.

For more South Dakota reading, check out:

Murder Rates By City In South Dakota

Rank City Population Murders Murders/100K
1 Spearfish, SD 12517 1 7.99
2 Box Elder, SD 12710 1 7.87
3 Pierre, SD 13977 1 7.15
4 Yankton, SD 15507 1 6.45
5 Rapid City, SD 78063 5 6.41
6 Sioux Falls, SD 199879 7 3.5
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.

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