City safety & data profile
BrookingsSD
Brookings, SD is a 24K-resident city in Brookings County with a median household income of $63,493.
Brookings County, South Dakota. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Brookings, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Brookings has a population larger than 53% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $265,500, and 1 hospital serving the surrounding area.
Data updated 2026-09-04
- 24K
- Population (place)
- Top 47%
- By size
- $63,493
- Median income (place)
- $265,500
- Median home (place)
- 16.9%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Brookings
Brookings posts a median household income higher than 27% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 hospital serves the Brookings area.
- Bottom 28%
- by median income, US cities
- 1
- hospital in & near Brookings
Where Brookings income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$63,493 Bottom 27% higher than 27% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year
Largest cities in SD
Population among 11 SD places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.
- Sioux Falls
Sioux Falls, SD
171,544 residents
- Rapid City
Rapid City, SD
73,569 residents
- Aberdeen 28,102
Aberdeen, SD
28,102 residents
- Brookings 23,657
Brookings, SD
23,657 residents
- Watertown 22,073
Watertown, SD
22,073 residents
- Mitchell 15,669
Mitchell, SD
15,669 residents
- Yankton 14,557
Yankton, SD
14,557 residents
- Pierre 14,091
Pierre, SD
14,091 residents
- Huron 13,313
Huron, SD
13,313 residents
- Spearfish 11,283
Spearfish, SD
11,283 residents
What this shows Sioux Falls is the largest SD city on this list; Pierre leads median income.
Highest median incomes in SD
Median household income among the same 11-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.
- Pierre
Pierre, SD
$77,672 median
- Sioux Falls
Sioux Falls, SD
$75,970 median
- Rapid City
Rapid City, SD
$70,870 median
- Watertown
Watertown, SD
$69,600 median
- Yankton
Yankton, SD
$67,804 median
- Spearfish
Spearfish, SD
$65,688 median
- Aberdeen
Aberdeen, SD
$64,405 median
- Brookings
Brookings, SD
$63,493 median
- Huron
Huron, SD
$61,452 median
- Mitchell
Mitchell, SD
$58,620 median
What this shows Pierre posts the highest place-level median income in SD; Sioux Falls is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Brookings, SD beyond the headline numbers
Brookings sits inside Brookings County, South Dakota, at roughly 44.31°N, -96.80°W. Population 23,657, $63,493 median household income. Median home value $265,500, median rent $889. Poverty rate 16.9%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
1 hospital in/around Brookings, 4/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER.
16.9% of Brookings, SD residents live below the poverty line, placing it in the hardest-hit quarter of reporting cities. Read every median on this page against that: half the households are above it, and a large minority are far below.
A median home in Brookings runs about 4.2 times median household income, above the midpoint. Multiples in this range usually mean buyers are arriving from outside the local wage base.
Remote work covers 10.4% of Brookings workers, under the midpoint for reporting cities.
Among the CDC measures on this page, binge drinking departs furthest from its peer median: 22.1% in Brookings, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.
Brookings's median age is 24.7 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Brookings from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.
10-Year Trends 2013–2024
County-level trend (Brookings County): Brookings's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.
Economics
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 16.9% +36% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 4.4% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 47.5% |
| Work From Home | 10.4% |
| Public Transit | 0.5% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
Hospitals 1 total
What alerts and safety updates affect Brookings?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Brookings right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet SD-BROOKINGS · Brookings
Brookings: 2 tagged alerts; lead category NWS weather alert.
- VOL-TRACE 2 on record
- WX-LED 100% weather
- DESK-MIX NOAA
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ San Jose
Tagged alert mix: Brookings
Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag
- Weather Alerts
Weather Alerts
2
What this shows 2 tagged notices on record for Brookings.
Nearest tagged-volume peer: San Jose, CA (2 tagged · Δ0)
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Brookings; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse South Dakota state hubs · Methodology
Cities with a similar tagged alert volume 4
Nearest published-notice counts on Areazine (2 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 6
What is the population of Brookings, SD? ▼
What is the median household income in Brookings? ▼
What is the median home value in Brookings? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Brookings? ▼
How many hospitals are in Brookings? ▼
What is the median age in Brookings? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Brookings, both outside South Dakota so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside SD (16.9% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside SD ($63,493 here).
Compare Brookings with another city
Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.
Nearby Cities 8
Using Brookings's profile
Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.
- Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Brookings area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
- Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
- Compare Brookings against South Dakota peers on any ranking lens. Explore South Dakota
Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.
Data Sources
All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Brookings County) where that is the smallest published unit.
Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.