Photo: BrianHagan · CC BY-SA 4.0Work means Sioux Falls for about three in four of Crooks’ working residents
The two grades for Crooks are A for jobs and income and C for walkability. Measured by household income, Crooks is ahead of 76% of U.S. towns. Only 2% work in Crooks; the top destination outside it is Sioux Falls (73%, 9 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Crooks apart on work
More than half of Crooks works in Sioux Falls
591 working residents, 73%, have their main job in Sioux Falls, 8.7 miles away. That’s 37 times as many as work in Crooks itself. The commute map ↓
Short distances, slow trips
Half of Crooks’ working residents have a job less than 9 miles away, yet the average commute still takes 26 minutes, longer than the South Dakota average of 18. Time on the road ↓
Most jobs in Crooks pay over $40,000 a year
75% of the jobs based in Crooks pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), the top earnings band in the Census data. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 807 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Crooks
On income, poverty and job access, Crooks is better than 92% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate is its strongest input (0.5%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 65% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and job access by car.
Unemployment (1.4%) is left out: Crooks’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Crooks could be anywhere from A to A+.
Commuting out of Crooks: the destinations
Where Crooks clocks in
Lines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Crooks’ commute takes about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Crooks workers work from home, vs 10% across South Dakota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 779 commuters (the 5% who work from home are left out). Across South Dakota: 85% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Goods jobs make up 40% of work in Crooks
325 jobs are based in Crooks.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Crooks, 2013 → 2023: 274 → 325. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Crooks’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Crooks, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 794 residents head out to work, 13 work right here, and 312 people come in from elsewhere.
About 930 people are in Crooks on a workday afternoon, 34% fewer than live here.
0.40 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Crooks
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
In Crooks, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Crooks is more walkable than 30% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 4.3% across South Dakota.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 823 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 0.0% of Crooks households have no vehicle (South Dakota 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Crooks’ commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Crooks is 227th among 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 169 | Wall Lake Township SD | 1,210 | $129K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 221 | Jefferson Township SD | 1,207 | $196K | 2.0% | 3.6% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 225 | Arbury Hills IL | 1,519 | $99K | 4.1% | 2.5% | 1% | A |
| 226 | Eden WI | 1,062 | $110K | 1.6% | 0.3% | 2% | A |
| 227 | Crooks SD | 1,415 | $99K | 0.5% | 1.4% | 2% | A |
| 228 | Midway Township MN | 1,427 | $104K | 1.5% | 1.7% | 3% | A |
| 229 | Mannington Township NJ | 1,495 | $109K | 4.2% | 3.4% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 435 | Baltic SD | 1,344 | $108K | 1.2% | 2.7% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Crooks, the top three, the last and three more from South Dakota.
Around Crooks: the bordering towns
The biggest share goes to Benton Township (1%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Crooks workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crooks | – | A | C | 26 min | $98,984 |
| Benton Township | 1% | — | — | 25 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Benton Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Crooks’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Crooks: questions
What is the median household income in Crooks?
$98,984 (±$14,226) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,081 across South Dakota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Crooks?
0.5%, against 11.9% across South Dakota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Crooks?
26 minutes each way on average, against 18 across South Dakota and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Crooks work?
2% work in town.
Is Crooks walkable?
Crooks is more walkable than 30% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 6.5 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Crooks without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Crooks, from the people who make the trip.
More of Crooks
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.