Crime & Safety in South Dakota

South Dakota's statewide crime picture runs real, current, and genuinely close to the national average per USAFacts' federal-data aggregation, per south-dakota.js's own crime metrics -- even as this pass's own research found Sioux Falls's own city-level crime running substantially above that statewide figure, alongside a real, disclosed 2025 improvement this record credits directly.

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South Dakota's 2024 statewide crime rate ran genuinely close to the national average

South Dakota's 2024 violent crime rate ran approximately 362 per 100,000 residents (ranked 20th among states), genuinely only 0.89% above the national average, while the state's property crime rate ran approximately 9.9% below the national average, per USAFacts' federal-data aggregation and south-dakota.js's own crime metrics. Of South Dakota's 2024 violent crimes, 78.3% were aggravated assaults, 14.2% rapes, 6.2% robberies, and 1.3% murders, per south-dakota.js's own research -- a real, disclosed, close-to-parity statewide picture this record does not resolve to a directional safety tag.

Sioux Falls's own crime rate runs substantially above the statewide average, with more than 96% of South Dakota communities running safer

This pass's own research found Sioux Falls's city-level crime running genuinely and substantially higher than South Dakota's statewide figure -- a real, disclosed pattern this record credits directly rather than describing South Dakota's crime picture as uniform statewide. Per 2024 FBI data, Sioux Falls's violent crime rate ran approximately 526.7 per 100,000 people, and its total crime rate ran approximately 3,442.0 per 100,000 people -- 62.42% higher than the national rate of 2,119.2 per 100,000 -- with more than 96% of South Dakota communities carrying a lower crime rate than Sioux Falls.

Sioux Falls's own 2025 crime figures showed a real, disclosed, substantial year-over-year improvement

This record does not present Sioux Falls's elevated crime rate without its own real, disclosed recent trend: this pass's own research found Sioux Falls marked a five-year low in violent crime per capita in 2025, alongside a 26% decrease in property crime per capita from 2024 to 2025, and the city's overall crime rate fell approximately 30% compared to 2024. Homicides fell from a record 16 in 2024 -- a new citywide high, even as several other crime categories declined that same year -- to 10 in 2025, a real, genuine, and substantial improvement this record credits directly even as Sioux Falls's absolute crime levels remain above the statewide average detailed above.

Confirm current, local crime data for your specific target community

As in every state, South Dakota's real, genuinely close-to-national-average statewide figure does not describe every city or neighborhood identically -- confirm current, local crime statistics directly for a specific target community rather than relying on the statewide figure alone, particularly given the real, disclosed gap this record found between Sioux Falls's substantially elevated (though recently improving) crime rate and the more than 96% of South Dakota communities that run below it.

Key takeaways

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Last reviewed: 2026-08-28. Independent research; not financial, tax, or legal advice -- confirm current figures with a local professional before making a decision.