Yankton, South Dakota

Area Profile

15,540 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Yankton, in Yankton County.

63out of 100
Area Score
Top 41% of 2,944 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 42% of 3,904 cities measured60
SchoolsTop 40% of 2,668 cities measured59
GrowthTop 30% of 2,973 cities measured62
Housing affordabilityTop 15% of 4,223 cities measured97
Climate3917th of 4,223 cities measured56
Physical resilience2246th of 4,182 cities measured55
Access3861st of 4,226 cities measured64
Economic stability2988th of 4,226 cities measured48
The quick read

Unemployment is 1.9% and median household income $67,804, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

In the public schools here, 49% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 17.1 students for every teacher.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 14% of median household income and the median home is 3.3 times it.

At a glance

Population
15,540
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$67,804
Top 49% nationally
Density
1,778/sq mi
8.7 sq mi of land
Median age
41.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Yankton County
South Dakota
Metro area
Yankton, SD
Nearest major airport
FSD
58 mi · Joe Foss Fld
Median home value
$222,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 1.9% is lower than 100% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.6% over the past year, to 11,985 employed residents.

33% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 74% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$10,073$67,804Top 49%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$5,336$41,073Top 30%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate14.1%Top 39%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute14.2 minBottom 5%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher33.2%Top 26%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment11,985Bottom 6%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.2%Bottom 17%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.6%Bottom 31%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force12,221Bottom 6%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation61.4%Top 47%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.1%Bottom 41%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate1.9%Bottom 1%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202469k59k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $67,804 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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Yankton County, SD, which contains this city.

49% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 53% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 17.1 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
6
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
17.1
across all schools here
Math proficiency
49.0%
Top 27% in South Dakota
Reading proficiency
53.1%
Top 45% in South Dakota
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Yankton High School - 01Yankton School District 63-392318.1
Yankton Middle School - 02Yankton School District 63-360816.957%57%
Lincoln Elementary - 04Yankton School District 63-341616.050%59%
Beadle Elementary - 03Yankton School District 63-341215.850%56%
Webster Elementary - 06Yankton School District 63-339123.030%36%
Stewart Elementary - 05Yankton School District 63-327112.955%54%

34.6% 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 $790 takes 14% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.3 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
14.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$790
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$222,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.28Top 41%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate66.3%Bottom 31%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2017,208Top 8%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$61$790Bottom 27%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$17,274$222,700Top 41%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income14.0%Bottom 19%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.9%Bottom 42%of 32,0012024 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
62/ 100
Top 30% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, measured from 2020 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 grown 2% since 2020, reaching 15,670 in 2024.

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

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

78% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 10.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
155
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
10.0
Top 13% nationally
Year over year
−3%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
78.1%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202416k15k
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
20202021202220232024202515767
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−20%).

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 10°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 28.7 inches, including 38.1 inches of snow.

0°20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station YANKTON 2 E, 1.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation28.7"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall38.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low10°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high87°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing55°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

55 / 100
Physical resilience

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

DroughtElevated
Winter weatherModerate
TornadoHigh
HailElevated
LightningModerate
WildfireModerate
Cold waveElevated
Heat waveModerate
Strong windModerate
Inland floodingModerate

Low or minimal exposure: ice storm, landslide, earthquake.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

Violent crime
191
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year
Property crime
1,456
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year

Below these are deaths rather than offences, published for the county. The two measure different things and are not comparable with each other.

Yankton's police department reported 191 violent offences per 100,000 residents, near the middle of places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 1,456.

Yankton County records 2.9 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Drug overdose deaths run at 6.1 per 100,000 residents in Yankton County.

Homicide
2.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
6.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
19.3
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.

Offences are reported to the FBI by Yankton’s own police department, for the population it serves, and are shown only where it reported every month of the year — a partial year is withheld rather than scaled up. Reported crime counts what was reported to and recorded by police, which is not the same as what happened, and a place that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate. Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Yankton 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 Yankton rather than Yankton 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.

Taxes
Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 58 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Joe Foss FldFSD58 mi9,000 ft
Sioux Gateway/Brig General Bud Day FldSUX61 mi9,002 ft
Eppley AirfieldOMA134 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
63
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
safetyFederal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer
Summarized offense counts by law enforcement agency
2025 calendar yearAnnually, with monthly revisions
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.

ZIP codes in Yankton

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
5707820,383$71,26862