Stutsman County, ND

County Profile

21,549 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Stutsman 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.

64out of 100
Area Score
Top 43% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 27% of 1,255 counties66
GrowthTop 48% of 1,226 counties51
Housing affordabilityTop 40% of 1,255 counties96
Climate1244th of 1,254 counties46
Physical resilienceTop 28% of 1,255 counties76
Access1220th of 1,255 counties12
Economic stabilityTop 48% of 1,255 counties63
The quick read

Unemployment is 2.4% and median household income $61,856, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

Rent takes 15% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.4 times that income.

The nearest major airport is 101 miles away, which is farther than most measured US locations.

At a glance

Population
21,549
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$61,856
Bottom 41% nationally
Density
10/sq mi
2221.9 sq mi of land
Median age
41.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Stutsman County
North Dakota
Metro area
Jamestown, ND
Nearest major airport
FAR
101 mi · Hector Intl
Median home value
$208,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 2.4% is lower than 98% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 0.6% over the past year, to 11,170 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,203$61,856Bottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,885$39,731Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate12.6%Bottom 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute15.8 minBottom 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher25.9%Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment11,170Bottom 6%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.1%Top 40%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.6%Top 49%June 2026
Labor force11,441Bottom 6%June 2026
Labor force participation61.1%Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.2%Bottom 32%June 2026
Unemployment rate2.4%Bottom 2%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/063.21.5
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 2.4% 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
202120222023202462k55k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $61,856 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.

51% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 50% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 10.0 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
15
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
10.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
50.9%
Reading proficiency
50.2%
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
JAMESTOWN HIGH SCHOOLJAMESTOWN 172213.1
JAMESTOWN MIDDLE SCHOOLJAMESTOWN 14669.947%57%
WILLIAM S GUSSNER ELEMENTARY SCHOOLJAMESTOWN 123971%51%
ROOSEVELT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLJAMESTOWN 12166.840%47%
LINCOLN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLJAMESTOWN 117945%41%
LOUIS L'AMOUR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLJAMESTOWN 11138.160%59%
MEDINA HIGH SCHOOLMEDINA 310314.750%70%
MEDINA ELEMENTARY SCHOOLMEDINA 310310.350%30%
PINGREE-BUCHANAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLPINGREE-BUCHANAN 1010212.870%50%
WASHINGTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLJAMESTOWN 1976.530%30%
MONTPELIER ELEMENTARY SCHOOLMONTPELIER 14616.8
PINGREE-BUCHANAN HIGH SCHOOLPINGREE-BUCHANAN 105814.5

32.9% 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 $774 takes 15% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.4 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
15.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$774
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$208,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.37Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate63.1%Bottom 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±5010,413Bottom 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$49$774Bottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$13,524$208,400Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income15.0%Bottom 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate9.4%Bottom 27%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
51/ 100
Top 48% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 3 consecutive years, 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 21,546 in 2024.

Permit activity has risen for 3 consecutive years.

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

At 1.2 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
26
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.2
Bottom 20% nationally
Year over year
+53%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202422k22k
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
20222023202420252214
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+57%).

Weather & climate

4 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 81°F and January a low of 1°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 19.8 inches.

-10°10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station JAMESTOWN MUNI AP, 13.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.6"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation19.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low1°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high81°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months41991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing60°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

76 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Winter weatherElevated
HailElevated
Cold waveElevated
Ice stormElevated
Strong windHigh
TornadoHigh

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

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.

Stutsman County records 0.0 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 13.2 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 10.8 per 100,000 residents in Stutsman County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
13.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
10.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
20.3
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 Stutsman 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 Stutsman County rather than Stutsman 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 101 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Hector IntlFAR101 mi9,001 ft
Joe Foss FldFSD258 mi9,000 ft
Rapid City RgnlRAP283 mi8,701 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
64
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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 Stutsman County, ND