Crime in Rapid City, South Dakota
Major crime in Rapid City is 2.7 times the U.S. rate per resident: 2.1 times for persons crimes and 2.8 times for property crimes. Expected major crimes are up 3.9% from a year earlier.
Modeled estimates per resident, not counts of incidents. How we calculated this
Index: crimes per resident compared with the U.S., where 100 is the U.S. rate and 200 is twice it.
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Shoplifting stands out most, at 5.6 times the U.S. rate
Expected crimes per year in Rapid City for each type, and the index against the U.S. rate per resident.
Citywide indexWhere the middle half of residents live
Property crimes
Social disorder
How crime varies across Rapid City
The middle half of Rapid City residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 84 and 256; the typical (median) resident's is 127. The citywide figure (267) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.
- 0–505.1%
- 50–10030.0%
- 100–20033.2%
- 200–40011.0%
- 400+20.7%
Share of residents by the index of their census block group, a neighborhood of roughly 600 to 3,000 people.
Highest on weekend daytimes
Major-crime index by time of week, against the U.S. rate for the same hours.
Major crime rose 3.9% in a year; across South Dakota it fell 7.4%
Change in expected crimes, with South Dakota as a whole in gray. The past year uses the reporting agencies' year-to-date FBI data; 2031 is the model's projection.
Rapid City against U.S. places with 50,000 to 100,000 residents
7 of the 540 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than Rapid City; the middle of the group is 92. The 9 nearest in population:
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.
Rapid City has a higher major-crime index than all of its 8 nearest neighbors
The 8 nearest cities and towns we cover, by major-crime index. The closest, Rapid Valley (5 mi), is 84% below Rapid City's rate.
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.
Questions about crime in Rapid City
What are the most common crimes in Rapid City?
By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are shoplifting (about 1,499 a year), other larceny (about 826 a year) and aggravated assault (about 403 a year). Compared with the U.S., shoplifting stands out most: 5.6 times the U.S. rate per resident.
How we calculated this
Each police agency's crimes, as reported to the FBI, are spread across the census block groups it serves using population, jobs, points of interest and, where available, local incident records. Rapid City's figures add up its 53 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.
- Rapid City has no published incident records in our data, so its estimate relies on agency totals and neighborhood characteristics.
- 91.6% of residents live in block groups whose estimate has high confidence (80% interval within about 5x).
- Rates are per resident, so places where many people work or visit but few live, such as downtowns, airports and stadiums, can read high.
- Disorderly conduct and trespassing are modeled, because the FBI records them only through arrests.
- Residents: 83,830. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2
Full method and validation·Data sources
CrimeMetric. "Crime in Rapid City, South Dakota." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/sd/rapid-city
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Major-crime index, U.S. = 100
- Rapid Valley5 mi42
- Box Elder11 mi93
- Sturgis27 mi113
- Spearfish42 mi82
- Hot Springs45 mi20
- Belle Fourche51 mi66
- Newcastle, WY52 mi55
- Chadron, NE87 mi91