Davison County, SD

County Profile

19,952 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Davison County, SD.

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 33% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity690th of 1,255 counties54
SchoolsTop 2% of 973 counties91
Growth1019th of 1,226 counties31
Housing affordabilityTop 28% of 1,255 counties99
Climate1124th of 1,254 counties55
Physical resilienceTop 30% of 1,255 counties75
Access1124th of 1,255 counties52
Economic stabilityTop 22% of 1,255 counties81
The quick read

Unemployment is 1.8% and median household income $66,208, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

48 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 14% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

Rent takes 15% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.1 times that income.

At a glance

Population
19,952
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$66,208
Top 47% nationally
Density
46/sq mi
435.6 sq mi of land
Median age
39.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Davison County
South Dakota
Metro area
Mitchell, SD
Nearest major airport
FSD
71 mi · Joe Foss Fld
Median home value
$205,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 1.8% is lower than 100% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 3.7% over the past year, to 10,655 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$7,907$66,208Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,468$38,150Top 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.2%Bottom 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute15.8 minBottom 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher22.6%Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment10,655Bottom 5%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.4%Bottom 29%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-3.7%Bottom 5%June 2026
Labor force10,852Bottom 5%June 2026
Labor force participation68.3%Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.0%Bottom 45%June 2026
Unemployment rate1.8%Bottom 1%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/062.71.3
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 1.8% 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
202120222023202466k51k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $66,208 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.

58% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 58% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.7 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
13
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
57.6%
Top 1% in South Dakota
Reading proficiency
58.1%
Top 9% in South Dakota
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Mitchell High School - 01Mitchell School District 17-287917.2
Mitchell Middle School - 02Mitchell School District 17-257814.452%57%
L. B. Williams Elementary - 03Mitchell School District 17-243812.260%64%
Gertie Belle Rogers Elementary - 04Mitchell School District 17-237914.053%49%
Longfellow Elementary - 05Mitchell School District 17-22909.762%58%
Ethan Elementary - 02Ethan School District 17-115514.171%64%
Mount Vernon Elementary - 02Mount Vernon School District 17-311012.2
Ethan High School - 01Ethan School District 17-19311.6
Mount Vernon High School- 01Mount Vernon School District 17-38714.5
Mount Vernon Middle School - 03Mount Vernon School District 17-35814.570%70%
Ethan Jr. High - 03Ethan School District 17-13919.550%70%
Abbott House High School - 07Mitchell School District 17-218

37.6% 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 South 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 $847 takes 15% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.1 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
15.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.1×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$847
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$205,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.11Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate61.5%Bottom 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±399,579Bottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$69$847Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$16,963$205,800Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income15.4%Bottom 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.1%Bottom 14%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
31/ 100
Ranks 1019 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 19,907 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 2.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
48
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.4
Bottom 42% nationally
Year over year
−14%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202420k20k
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
20222023202420256748
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−21%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 87°F and January a low of 9°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 21.1 inches.

0°20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station MITCHELL MUNI AP, 8.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation21.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low9°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high87°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing56°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

75 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Winter weatherModerate
TornadoElevated
WildfireModerate
Cold waveModerate
DroughtModerate
HailModerate
Strong windModerate
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: ice storm, inland flooding, lightning, earthquake, landslide.

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.

Davison 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 12.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 0.0 per 100,000 residents in Davison County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
12.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
20.4
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 Davison 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 Davison County rather than Davison 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

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 71 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Joe Foss FldFSD71 mi9,000 ft
Sioux Gateway/Brig General Bud Day FldSUX126 mi9,002 ft
Eppley AirfieldOMA201 mi9,502 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 Davison County, SD