Crime in South Dakota

Law enforcement agencies in South Dakota reported a violent crime rate of 293.7 per 100,000 residents in 2025, against a national rate of 317.6. That is rank 25 of 51.

American Factbook Research

2025 at a glance

Violent crime rate: 293.7; Per 100,000 residents. National rate 317.6.
Property crime rate: 1,283.0; Per 100,000 residents. National rate 1,496.8.
Homicide rate: 3.0; Per 100,000 residents, from 28 reported offenses.
Population covered: 935,094; The FBI’s estimate for the agencies that reported. This is the rate denominator.
Share of the population: 89.7%; Of the state’s population living in a reporting agency’s jurisdiction.
Agencies reporting to NIBRS: 141 of 141; Agencies submitting incident-based data, of those the FBI lists in the state.

Figures are for calendar year 2025, taken from the FBI Crime Data Explorer on September 19, 2026.

By offense

Showing the main columns. Turn the phone, or open a row, for the full breakdown.

Reported offenses in South Dakota by type, 2025
Offense	Offenses	Rate	Cleared
Aggravated assault	2,141	229.0	1,263
Arson	60	6.4	28
Burglary	1,402	149.9	242
Homicide	28	3.0	21
Larceny	9,316	996.3	1,741
Motor vehicle theft	1,219	130.4	246
Rape	418	44.7	68
Robbery	159	17.0	49

These are the component offenses. They are part of the violent crime and property crime categories above, not additional to them, and we do not add them together to build those categories: which offense rolls up into which is the FBI’s definition. A cleared offense is one the FBI records as closed by arrest or by exceptional means. It is not a conviction.

Since 1985

Showing the main columns. Turn the phone, or open a row, for the full breakdown.

Violent and property crime rates per 100,000 residents in South Dakota, 1985 to 2026
Year	Violent rate	Property rate	Coverage	Months
1985	106.4	2,068.8	70.4%	12
1986	110.6	2,301.3	73.0%	12
1987	108.5	2,258.7	72.0%	12
1988	80.3	1,847.8	66.4%	12
1989	118.3	2,135.5	70.8%	12
1990	152.0	2,522.4	84.9%	12
1991	174.4	2,754.5	89.5%	12
1992	187.3	2,625.6	89.0%	12
1993	188.5	2,425.7	82.6%	12
1994	189.7	2,417.5	75.0%	12
1995	185.3	2,476.0	78.2%	12
1996	157.0	2,363.4	76.4%	12
1997	132.2	1,847.8	49.9%	12
1998	127.4	1,931.4	68.7%	12
1999	142.0	2,077.5	74.1%	12
2000	150.8	1,975.4	81.3%	12
2001	138.0	1,875.4	75.1%	12
2002	157.0	1,902.5	81.4%	12
2003	164.6	1,907.5	91.2%	12
2004	158.5	1,781.7	87.2%	12
2005	155.2	1,478.0	78.9%	12
2006	218.7	1,548.8	79.9%	12
2007	219.9	1,619.9	87.7%	12
2008	251.2	1,599.5	86.3%	12
2009	189.0	1,669.4	90.4%	12
2010	246.5	1,774.8	90.2%	12
2011	238.7	1,780.5	90.6%	12
2012	308.3	2,032.6	92.2%	12
2013	310.5	1,879.3	92.5%	12
2014	316.3	1,827.4	92.8%	12
2015	383.0	1,869.1	92.4%	12
2016	403.4	1,933.0	92.5%	12
2017	402.3	1,793.8	89.5%	12
2018	348.0	1,654.3	94.8%	12
2019	341.4	1,707.4	94.4%	12
2020	464.4	1,821.6	95.0%	12
2021	369.0	1,603.3	89.0%	12
2022	359.6	1,663.1	88.8%	12
2023	333.8	1,551.7	88.6%	12
2024	320.0	1,535.5	89.7%	12
2025	293.7	1,283.0	89.7%	12
2026	135.7 · 9 mo	592.0 · 9 mo	57.6%	9

A year with fewer than twelve reported months is kept and flagged rather than dropped, and its rate carries the month count in the cell: it is that many months of offenses over a full year’s population, so it is not an annual rate. Coverage moves as agencies join and leave the programme, so part of any change in the rate is a change in who reported — particularly across 2021, when the FBI retired the Summary Reporting System.

Nearest rates

Showing the main columns. Turn the phone, or open a row, for the full breakdown.

States either side of South Dakota in the violent crime ranking, 2025
Rank	State	Violent rate	Coverage
24	Massachusetts	300.3	99.8%
26	Washington	284.4	97.5%

Full rankings: violent crime, property crime, and homicide. All states: crime and justice.

What this page cannot show

Offenses reported to and recorded by police in South Dakota, then submitted to the FBI. Crime not reported to police is not here.
Reporting is voluntary and coverage differs by year, so a change in a count can be a change in how many agencies submitted.
Rates use the FBI’s population estimate for the reporting agencies, not the state’s full resident population. Where coverage is below 100%, the rate describes the covered population.
Nothing here explains why a figure moved. The record is what was reported.

Full method at methodology.

Sources

FBI Crime Data Explorer API — Federal Bureau of Investigation, Criminal Justice Information Services Division · U.S. Government work, public domain (17 U.S.C. 105) · retrieved 2026-09-19
apps/web/queries/crime/state_offense_breakdown.sql

Data retrieved September 19, 2026