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State Life Score

South Dakota

Top-quartile composite Life Score — grade A-, 84th percentile of the national corpus.

59.4
Life Score / 100
A-
Grade (curved)
#8
of 51 states
84%
composite percentile

Data updated August 2026

Verify: BEA · BLS · HUD · FBI · NCES · EPA · Census · Report a data issue · Data changelog

The verdict

South Dakota is top-quartile composite Life Score — #8 of 51 (59.4/100, grade A-, 84th percentile). Carried by childcare at 93/100; held back most by wages at 12/100.

84th
composite percentile
#8
of 51 peers
88th
cost dimension percentile
12th
wages dimension percentile

Life Score shape · UPPER · BALANCED

South Dakota at a glance

South Dakota is a UPPER-band BALANCED state: childcare leads at 93/100 while wages drags at 12/100 (FLOOR cost · LOW wages). According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, South Dakota ranks #8 of 51 states by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #6 of 51 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.

Where South Dakota sits among all US states

Composite Life Score vs the 50 states + DC

59 Top 16% higher than 84% of 51 US states

25–30: 1 US states (2%). Below this entry. 30–35: 2 US states (4%). Below this entry. 35–40: 4 US states (8%). Below this entry. 40–45: 6 US states (12%). Below this entry. 45–50: 10 US states (20%). Below this entry. 50–55: 12 US states (24%). Below this entry. 55–60: 10 US states (20%). This entry sits in this band. 60–65: 4 US states (8%). Above this entry. 65–70: 2 US states (4%). Above this entry. This state 25 70 every US state, bucketed by value

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US states. 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 PlainCompare composite of BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA data

Dimension detail

How South Dakota scores, dimension by dimension

Score Breakdown

Cost of Living Wages Rent Safety Schools Childcare Environment

Dimension Scores

Cost of Living 90/100 (20%)
Wages 12/100 (20%)
Rent 82/100 (15%)
Safety 48/100 (15%)
Schools 34/100 (10%)
Childcare 93/100 (10%)
Environment 68/100 (10%)

Read with South Dakota

Nearest composite peers and cost poles (UPPER · FLOOR/LOW).

North Dakota

ABS(composite) peer at 59.7 (Δ 0.3 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade A- vs this page's UPPER · BALANCED · FLOOR/LOW.

West Virginia

ABS(composite) peer at 58.7 (Δ 0.7 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade A- vs this page's UPPER · BALANCED · FLOOR/LOW.

Idaho

ABS(composite) peer at 60.1 (Δ 0.7 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade A- vs this page's UPPER · BALANCED · FLOOR/LOW.

Oklahoma

ABS(composite) peer at 58.5 (Δ 0.9 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade B+ vs this page's UPPER · BALANCED · FLOOR/LOW.

Alabama (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 88/100 (Δ 2); cost stamp FLOOR vs this state's FLOOR.

Louisiana (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 92/100 (Δ 2); cost stamp FLOOR vs this state's FLOOR.
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Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Data sourced from official public datasets, current as of 2026. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCompare