Fruitdale, SD population, income and ZIP codes

Fruitdale town is a very small community in South Dakota, with 121 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #284 of 485 ranked by population — larger than 41% of them. The median age here is 32.2 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in Fruitdale town earn a median of $15,833 a year, 79.8% below the national figure of $78,538 and 76% below the $65,500 median for the 79 South Dakota cities we cover. The median is the midpoint household, not an average, so a handful of very high earners cannot drag it upward the way they distort a mean. Poverty reaches 47.1% of residents here, well above the 12.4% national rate, which is the single clearest signal in this dataset that median income here is carried by a narrow band of households.

The typical owner-occupied home in Fruitdale town is valued at $162,800, 46.3% below the national figure and 16% below the $192,800 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,375 a month, 2.2% below the national figure, or roughly $16,500 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 104.2% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is severely stretched — a median-income renter clears the cost-burden line by a wide margin before utilities beyond the gross-rent definition. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 10.3×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is out of reach on local earnings alone and the ownership market leans on outside income, equity or dual high earners. 85.7% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, an owner-dominated market where rental listings are scarce and rent medians rest on a thin sample. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

Home values sit at 10.3× median household income, far past the 3.9× national mark, so ownership costs here are set by something other than local wages — second homes, retirees with equity, or commuters earning elsewhere. With 121 residents, a handful of survey responses moves every median on this page. Compare Fruitdale town against its county rather than against national figures.

Every value on this page is published directly by the Census for this area — nothing is modelled or interpolated. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.