All Counties in South Dakota, Eviction Risk 2026
66 counties covering 484 incorporated cities and 719,280 residents. Statewide average landlord risk score is 3.4/10 (Low), but county-level scores vary sharply, urban counties with strong tenant protections or high rent burdens routinely score several points above rural counties.
| County↕ | Population↕ | Risk↕ | Lean↕ | Renters↕ | % income on rent↕ | Avg rent↕ | Poverty↕ | Cities↕ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Dewey County | 4,120 | 5.2 | Dem | 63.2% | 22.5% | $592 | 45.7% | 5 |
| 02 | Oglala Lakota County | 5,765 | 5.1 | Dem | 53.4% | 27.3% | $626 | 68.2% | 6 |
| 03 | Todd County | 6,547 | 4.7 | Dem | 63.8% | 21.4% | $510 | 54.3% | 11 |
| 04 | Mellette County | 948 | 4.7 | Rep | 62.2% | 19.4% | $867 | 62.6% | 4 |
| 05 | Corson County | 1,622 | 4.6 | IND | 48.2% | 19.5% | $611 | 34.6% | 6 |
| 06 | Haakon County | 996 | 4.4 | Rep | 36.7% | 21.1% | $726 | 34.1% | 4 |
| 07 | Bennett County | 1,819 | 4.2 | Rep | 61.8% | 21.6% | $636 | 26.3% | 3 |
| 08 | Potter County | 1,757 | 4.1 | Rep | 35.9% | 17.9% | $1,051 | 27.3% | 5 |
| 09 | Ziebach County | 638 | 3.9 | Dem | 40.2% | 22.3% | $613 | 54.1% | 3 |
| 10 | Campbell County | 1,230 | 3.9 | Rep | 43.2% | 26.3% | $594 | 30.3% | 6 |
| 11 | Jackson County | 1,324 | 3.9 | Rep | 45.2% | 21.8% | $405 | 37.2% | 7 |
| 12 | Charles Mix County | 4,497 | 3.8 | Rep | 37.8% | 26.6% | $744 | 23.2% | 10 |
| 13 | Roberts County | 5,598 | 3.8 | Rep | 50.9% | 24.3% | $637 | 31.9% | 12 |
| 14 | Buffalo County | 1,153 | 3.7 | Dem | 60.8% | 22.9% | $563 | 40.5% | 2 |
| 15 | Tripp County | 3,373 | 3.6 | Rep | 46.2% | 38.2% | $735 | 31.3% | 5 |
| 16 | Lyman County | 2,034 | 3.6 | Rep | 39.8% | 15.6% | $587 | 26.6% | 5 |
| 17 | Hyde County | 681 | 3.5 | Rep | 49.3% | 27.2% | $821 | 6.5% | 3 |
| 18 | Fall River County | 4,976 | 3.5 | Rep | 36.2% | 26.5% | $933 | 33.9% | 10 |
| 19 | Clay County | 12,485 | 3.5 | Dem | 34.0% | 33.7% | $763 | 16.6% | 4 |
| 20 | Day County | 3,269 | 3.4 | Rep | 27.6% | 22.3% | $598 | 16.7% | 10 |
| 21 | Hand County | 1,855 | 3.4 | Rep | 45.9% | 28.1% | $568 | 10.5% | 5 |
| 22 | Brookings County | 30,516 | 3.4 | Rep | 35.8% | 27.9% | $876 | 11.4% | 11 |
| 23 | Sanborn County | 1,320 | 3.4 | Rep | 30.5% | 41.3% | $707 | 17.7% | 6 |
| 24 | Butte County | 6,498 | 3.4 | Rep | 16.9% | 33.7% | $1,035 | 19.4% | 5 |
| 25 | Lake County | 8,507 | 3.4 | Rep | 29.3% | 24.5% | $909 | 12.7% | 13 |
| 26 | Union County | 13,638 | 3.4 | Rep | 34.5% | 22.4% | $1,001 | 8.2% | 8 |
| 27 | Pennington County | 102,968 | 3.3 | Rep | 28.1% | 28.7% | $1,100 | 11.4% | 11 |
| 28 | Brown County | 32,581 | 3.3 | Rep | 32.1% | 26.0% | $889 | 10.8% | 16 |
| 29 | Hughes County | 14,164 | 3.3 | Rep | 28.1% | 21.8% | $941 | 9.1% | 2 |
| 30 | Meade County | 14,320 | 3.3 | Rep | 18.1% | 32.9% | $963 | 10.4% | 5 |
| 31 | Walworth County | 3,912 | 3.3 | Rep | 25.0% | 28.1% | $871 | 12.9% | 6 |
| 32 | Lawrence County | 23,002 | 3.3 | Rep | 28.9% | 25.7% | $951 | 10.2% | 12 |
| 33 | Clark County | 2,946 | 3.3 | Rep | 28.0% | 18.5% | $786 | 23.0% | 16 |
| 34 | Codington County | 23,441 | 3.3 | Rep | 27.4% | 24.5% | $909 | 15.0% | 4 |
| 35 | Gregory County | 2,554 | 3.3 | Rep | 27.5% | 28.5% | $589 | 13.8% | 6 |
| 36 | Moody County | 3,998 | 3.2 | Rep | 22.2% | 28.5% | $872 | 11.7% | 7 |
| 37 | Hanson County | 1,519 | 3.2 | Rep | 21.2% | 21.4% | $619 | 12.9% | 8 |
| 38 | Faulk County | 1,147 | 3.2 | Rep | 31.5% | 20.8% | $902 | 41.9% | 10 |
| 39 | Custer County | 6,405 | 3.2 | Rep | 17.4% | 23.4% | $1,001 | 8.4% | 7 |
| 40 | Davison County | 16,554 | 3.2 | Rep | 35.4% | 24.6% | $758 | 9.4% | 5 |
| 41 | Douglas County | 1,574 | 3.2 | Rep | 29.2% | 25.7% | $773 | 14.0% | 5 |
| 42 | Turner County | 5,779 | 3.2 | Rep | 23.1% | 23.5% | $759 | 13.3% | 10 |
| 43 | Kingsbury County | 3,146 | 3.2 | Rep | 23.1% | 26.0% | $681 | 11.2% | 9 |
| 44 | Yankton County | 16,519 | 3.2 | Rep | 24.5% | 22.1% | $756 | 5.8% | 6 |
| 45 | Brule County | 4,223 | 3.2 | Rep | 27.2% | 27.9% | $870 | 7.6% | 8 |
| 46 | Lincoln County | 22,905 | 3.2 | Rep | 16.7% | 25.4% | $1,043 | 7.7% | 8 |
| 47 | Minnehaha County | 228,254 | 3.2 | Rep | 26.9% | 24.0% | $978 | 5.7% | 16 |
| 48 | Beadle County | 15,992 | 3.2 | Rep | 27.2% | 24.8% | $854 | 14.7% | 11 |
| 49 | Deuel County | 2,362 | 3.2 | Rep | 23.1% | 22.9% | $543 | 9.8% | 9 |
| 50 | Marshall County | 2,383 | 3.2 | Rep | 25.0% | 18.5% | $729 | 19.9% | 9 |
| 51 | Bon Homme County | 4,690 | 3.2 | Rep | 18.3% | 21.9% | $723 | 24.5% | 8 |
| 52 | Miner County | 1,291 | 3.2 | Rep | 22.3% | 24.1% | $586 | 16.6% | 8 |
| 53 | Grant County | 4,853 | 3.2 | Rep | 24.3% | 25.2% | $681 | 13.3% | 11 |
| 54 | Hutchinson County | 6,212 | 3.2 | Rep | 24.7% | 22.6% | $572 | 21.0% | 14 |
| 55 | McCook County | 2,979 | 3.2 | Rep | 23.2% | 27.0% | $852 | 18.3% | 7 |
| 56 | Aurora County | 1,376 | 3.2 | Rep | 27.4% | 23.6% | $831 | 11.1% | 6 |
| 57 | Edmunds County | 2,383 | 3.2 | Rep | 25.1% | 14.8% | $1,023 | 12.0% | 9 |
| 58 | Jerauld County | 755 | 3.2 | Rep | 23.3% | 19.5% | $560 | 11.2% | 3 |
| 59 | McPherson County | 1,399 | 3.2 | Rep | 17.6% | 17.7% | $795 | 20.7% | 6 |
| 60 | Perkins County | 1,634 | 3.2 | Rep | 26.0% | 24.9% | $780 | 13.5% | 3 |
| 61 | Sully County | 1,124 | 3.2 | Rep | 24.1% | 21.5% | $939 | 9.7% | 3 |
| 62 | Hamlin County | 3,641 | 3.2 | Rep | 22.2% | 25.3% | $970 | 7.2% | 8 |
| 63 | Jones County | 710 | 3.2 | Rep | 22.4% | 16.9% | $534 | 16.5% | 4 |
| 64 | Stanley County | 2,479 | 3.2 | Rep | 18.2% | 24.7% | $913 | 1.8% | 2 |
| 65 | Spink County | 3,621 | 3.1 | Rep | 21.0% | 21.5% | $715 | 13.4% | 15 |
| 66 | Harding County | 319 | 3.1 | Rep | 12.1% | 16.7% | $725 | 10.2% | 2 |
Understanding county eviction risk in South Dakota
South Dakota's 66 counties span eviction-risk scores from 3.1 in Harding County to 5.2 in Dewey County , a 2.1-point gap that captures how unevenly rent burdens, renter populations, and local tenant politics are distributed across the state. The statewide average sits at 3.4/10 (Low), but that single figure hides far more than it reveals, the table above scores every county on the same 1–10 scale so you can see exactly where landlord exposure concentrates.
The counties carrying the most eviction risk, Dewey County, Oglala Lakota County, Todd County, are South Dakota's denser, higher-cost markets. In Sanborn County, renters spend an average of 41% of household income on rent, and 30% of its homes are renter-occupied, the cost pressure that pushes filings up and pulls tenant-protection ordinances into local politics. Larger metros also concentrate the legal-aid networks and renter-organizing capacity that lift a county's score above the rural baseline.
At the other end of the table, Harding County, Spink County, Stanley County score lowest. These tend to be smaller, more rural counties where homeownership is the norm, rent-to-income ratios run lower, and local rent-control or just-cause ordinances are rare or state-preempted. Evictions still happen there, but the structural pressure that drives a high score (heavy rent burden, a large renter majority, organized tenant advocacy) is simply weaker.
Each county score is a population-weighted aggregate of every city scored inside it, so a county with one expensive urban core and a dozen quiet suburbs lands somewhere in between. Click any county row to drill into its cities ranked one by one, a zoomed heat map, and a full breakdown of rent burden, renter share, poverty rate, and political margin. For the statutes that apply statewide regardless of county, notice periods, security-deposit caps, just-cause and rent-control rules, see the South Dakota state overview.