Best PlacesBismarck, ND Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Bismarck metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Costs and crime both read low, and the nearest big city is a drive away. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0, via commons
Bismarck ranks 18th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It earns the spot by being affordable and steady rather than flashy: everyday costs run well below the national average, and crime is low. The trade is distance from a big city: the nearest large city and its jobs, flights, and culture are a drive away.
The best neighborhoods in the Bismarck metro
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
Bismarck's strengths and weaknesses
Bismarck ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Short commutes, health care access, and a stable housing market carry most of that.
The one real hole is distance from a big city, near the bottom of the country. Tree cover and transit also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Bismarck ranks high
- Short commute18.2 minutes each way, better than 96% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 95% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 95% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than 94% of metro areas
Where Bismarck ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than only 30% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 35% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Bismarck
A household needs to earn about $87,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bismarck home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $93,317, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Bismarck's effective rate of 0.90%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Bismarck
Bismarck's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Bismarck.
Who works in Bismarck, and how
Work in Bismarck centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Bismarck
Bismarck has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and more parkland per resident than 90% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Bismarck and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Bismarck growing, and who is moving in?
Bismarck has grown about 14% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Fargo, ND.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Bismarck go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Bismarck, month by month
Bismarck sees roughly 125 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 28, with lows near 5. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 28° | 15° | 5° |
| April | 57° | 42° | 28° |
| July | 89° | 73° | 58° |
| October | 61° | 46° | 33° |
Flying in and out of Bismarck
The nearest airport, Bismarck Municipal, is about 4 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 387 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bismarck
Schools across Bismarck average a C+, better than 36% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Naughton Elementary SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Victor Solheim Elementary SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Wilton Elementary SchoolA− · 60% proficient
Top middle schools
- Horizon Middle SchoolB+ · 49% proficient
- Mandan Middle SchoolB · 46% proficient
- Horizon Middle SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Top high schools
- Wing High SchoolA · 75% proficient
- Century High SchoolB+ · 56% proficient
- Hazelton-moffit-braddock High SchoolB · 47% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bismarck school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bismarck measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Bismarck against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Bismarck suits
Families
Schools land around the 36th percentile and crime safety beats 94%.
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 95% of metro areas and 10% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 76% of metro areas and health care access beats 96%.
Common questions about living in Bismarck
Is Bismarck a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bismarck ranks 18th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on short commutes, health care access, and a stable housing market, and lowest on distance from a big city and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bismarck expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $327,307. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $93,317 median income, cost of living beats 95% of metro areas.
Is Bismarck safe?
Yes, Bismarck is safer than 94% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $284 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Bismarck?
July highs average about 89 degrees, and January highs near 28 with lows near 5. That works out to about 125 pleasant days a year, more than 76% of metro areas.
Is Bismarck good for families?
Schools beat 36% of metro areas, crime safety beats 94%, and childcare runs $980 a month.
Is Bismarck good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 95% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 30% of metro areas. About 10% of workers already work from home.
Compare Bismarck with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bismarck. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bismarck represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Bismarck detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bismarck: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bismarck: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bismarck: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bismarck: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bismarck detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.