Stark County, ND

County Profile

33,302 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Stark County, ND.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

66out of 100
Area Score
Top 34% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 17% of 1,255 counties74
Growth924th of 1,226 counties36
Housing affordabilityTop 33% of 1,255 counties98
Climate1227th of 1,254 counties49
Physical resilienceTop 13% of 1,255 counties86
Access1241st of 1,255 counties0
Economic stabilityTop 35% of 1,255 counties72
The quick read

Stark County ranks in the top 17% of published profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 2.5% and median household income of $84,449.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Stark County in the top 13% for physical resilience.

The nearest major airport is 192 miles away, which is farther than most measured US locations.

At a glance

Population
33,302
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$84,449
Top 14% nationally
Density
25/sq mi
1334.9 sq mi of land
Median age
34.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Stark County
North Dakota
Metro area
Dickinson, ND
Nearest major airport
RAP
192 mi · Rapid City Rgnl
Median home value
$271,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 2.5% is lower than 98% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 1.3% over the past year, to 16,888 employed residents.

30% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 76% of measured US locations.

Household income is higher than at least 86% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,980$84,449Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,904$40,951Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate12.1%Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute18.7 minBottom 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher30.0%Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment16,888Bottom 16%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.2%Top 40%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.3%Bottom 34%June 2026
Labor force17,326Bottom 16%June 2026
Labor force participation69.1%Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.1%Bottom 39%June 2026
Unemployment rate2.5%Bottom 2%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.41.7
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 2.5% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202484k70k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $84,449 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.

36% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 42% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 11.7 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
17
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
11.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
36.3%
Reading proficiency
42.1%
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
DICKINSON HIGH SCHOOLDICKINSON 11,02215.0
DICKINSON MIDDLE SCHOOLDICKINSON 194416.032%52%
PRAIRIE ROSE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLDICKINSON 14908.429%41%
LINCOLN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLDICKINSON 13878.453%47%
JEFFERSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLDICKINSON 13709.745%42%
HEART RIVER ELEMENTARY SCHOOLDICKINSON 127316.126%26%
SOUTH HEART ELEMENTARY SCHOOLSOUTH HEART 925712.843%33%
ROOSEVELT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLDICKINSON 12548.249%44%
P S BERG ELEMENTARY SCHOOLDICKINSON 12238.330%34%
SOUTH HEART HIGH SCHOOLSOUTH HEART 918012.010%10%
TAYLOR-RICHARDTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLRICHARDTON-TAYLOR 3414212.958%50%
RICHARDTON-TAYLOR HIGH SCHOOLRICHARDTON-TAYLOR 3413911.630%70%

29.3% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against North Dakota’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $960 takes 14% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.2 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
13.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$960
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$271,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.22Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate66.8%Bottom 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4515,514Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$46$960Top 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$9,055$271,700Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income13.6%Bottom 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate12.7%Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
36/ 100
Ranks 924 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, measured from 2022 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has been broadly flat since 2020, at 33,767 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward after moving the other way the year before.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 1.7 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
56
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.7
Bottom 29% nationally
Year over year
−2%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202434k33k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
20222023202420257520
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was close to 2022 (−4%).

Weather & climate

4 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 84°F and January a low of 6°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 15.6 inches.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station THEODORE ROOSEVELT AP, 6.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation15.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low6°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high84°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months41991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing53°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

Physical risk

86 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are cold wave, hail and winter weather.

Winter weatherModerate
HailElevated
Cold waveModerate
Ice stormModerate
LightningModerate
Strong windModerate

Low or minimal exposure: wildfire, tornado, drought, heat wave, inland flooding, landslide, earthquake.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Stark County records 4.0 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 16.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 12.4 per 100,000 residents in Stark County.

Homicide
4.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
16.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
12.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
24.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Stark County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Stark County rather than Stark County itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

No airport meeting the AreaProfile major-airport definition lies within 100 miles; the nearest is 192 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Rapid City RgnlRAP192 mi8,701 ft
Sheridan CountySHR252 mi8,301 ft
Hector IntlFAR276 mi9,001 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
66
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

Cities in Stark County, ND