Best PlacesYankton, SD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Yankton, 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.
Yankton ranks 3,341st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on short commutes by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Yankton
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.
Yankton's strengths and weaknesses
Where Yankton ranks high
- Short commute13.9 minutes each way, better than 98% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 98% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 95% of towns
- BikingBetter than 94% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 93% of towns
Where Yankton ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 11% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 20% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 21% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 26% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 29% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Yankton
A household needs to earn about $68,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Yankton home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $76,514, 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 Yankton's effective rate of 1.04%, 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 Yankton
Yankton runs older than the country, 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 Yankton.
Who works in Yankton, and how
Work in Yankton centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 5%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Yankton
Yankton has more restaurants and bars per resident than 86% of towns and more parkland per resident than 89% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Yankton and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Yankton, month by month
Yankton sees roughly 120 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 31, with lows near 13. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31° | 21° | 13° |
| April | 61° | 47° | 37° |
| July | 87° | 75° | 65° |
| October | 64° | 51° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Yankton
The nearest airport, Joe Foss Field, is about 59 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Eppley Airfield, about 134 miles away.
The best schools in and around Yankton
Schools across Yankton average an A, better than 95% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Akron Westfield Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Beadle Elementary - 03A− · 60% proficient
- Stewart Elementary - 05A− · 60% proficient
Top middle schools
- Akron Westfield Middle SchoolA+ · 77% proficient
- Yankton Middle School - 02B · 45% proficient
- Irene - Wakonda Jr. High - 04D · 21% proficient
Top high schools
- Akron Westfield Senior High SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Yankton High School - 01B+ · 56% proficient
- Scotland High School - 01C+ · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Yankton school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Yankton 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 Yankton against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Yankton
Is Yankton a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Yankton ranks 3,341st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on short commutes, low taxes, and good schools, and lowest on distance from a big city and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Yankton expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $251,432. The overall cost of living runs about 20% below the national average. Set against a $76,514 median income, cost of living beats 75% of towns.
Is Yankton safe?
Yes, Yankton is safer than 82% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $241 per resident a year.
Compare Yankton with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Yankton. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Yankton 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.
Yankton detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Yankton: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Yankton: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Yankton: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Yankton: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Yankton 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.
- 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.