States · South Dakota
South Dakota: every county, ranked.
The State Screen scores all 66 counties in South Dakota from 0 to 100 against each other on the four things a homestead can't do without: water, privacy, hazard exposure and access. Nothing is screened out.
Top five counties
- Deuel County
- McPherson County
- Potter County
- Marshall County
- Grant County
In order, without their scores. Every county's score, its four sub-scores and the raw numbers behind them are in the free map.
Free for an email address: a Google Earth file with every county clickable.
What the map says about South Dakota
Rainfall runs from 16 to 30 inches a year across South Dakota, with the median county at 23.
Across South Dakota, the typical well is 114 ft deep. In 65% of its counties the median well is 150 ft or shallower; in 8% it is 400 ft or more.
The hazard that scores worst most often is wildfire, in 27 of 66 counties.
94% of South Dakota's counties sit outside every metro commuting ring, and the median one is 31 miles from a town of 5,000.
These are counties, not parcels. A good score says the region has the water, the quiet and the hazard profile; it says nothing about a particular piece of land's flood zone, access or water source.
Then make it yours
The State Screen is one opinion of what matters. The complete map is 35 layers you switch on and off to suit your own search — wildfire, water rights, radon, well depth, state gun and homeschool law, distance from the cities, military sites and more — across the US, Canada and Mexico.