Photo: devriesm · CC BY 2.0Per resident, Hot Springs records less crime than 89% of U.S. towns
Violent crime here is lower than in 63% of U.S. towns; property crime, lower than in 98%. Add to that, that puts it at A for safety, judged on crimes Hot Springs’ police reported from 2023 to 2025: #1 of 23 graded towns in South Dakota. Annual rates stand at 1.2 violent crimes and 1.2 incidents of property crime for every thousand residents, next to 4.0 and 21.9 in the rest of South Dakota.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of SD” is every other South Dakota city and town in the FBI’s tables; the U.S. figure is the FBI’s national estimate as published, averaged over the three years. The FBI publishes no national homicide or robbery rate in our data, so those compare with all U.S. cities and towns in its tables.
What’s behind Hot Springs’ grade
Property crimes plus four times violent crimes reported to the FBI per resident, 2023–2025, on a national curve. Both violent and property crime are lower than in most U.S. towns; property crime is the stronger of the two.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Hot Springs | Rest of South Dakota | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2.8 | 4.6 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 0.8 | 4.2 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 1.9 | 4.2 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 0.8 | 3.7 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Hot Springs’ police reported 13 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.2 per 1,000 residents a year, against 4.0 in the rest of South Dakota and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Hot Springs per 1,000 residents
Violent crime per 1,000 residents, 2025
Property crime per 1,000 residents, 2025
Crimes reported to police in 2025 per resident; one person can be the victim of more than one, and some reports involve visitors.
And about 1 violent crime, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | Hot Springs property | Rest of South Dakota property | Hot Springs violent | Rest of South Dakota violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.7 | 25.7 | 2.8 | 4.6 |
| 2023 | 2.4 | 23.3 | 0.8 | 4.2 |
| 2024 | 0.3 | 23.0 | 1.9 | 4.2 |
| 2025 | 0.8 | 19.3 | 0.8 | 3.7 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2022–2025, against the rest of South Dakota.
6 crimes reported in 2025
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
3 violent and 3 property, as reported to the FBI by Hot Springs’ police.
No one died in a crash on Hot Springs’s roads in 2019–2023
That is about what is typical for South Dakota towns of 2,500–5,000 people: at their median rate (0.0 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Hot Springs’s size would see about 0 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Hot Springs’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Deaths are counted where the crash happened, not where the people lived: a highway through town adds through-traffic deaths, and residents’ own risk on roads elsewhere isn’t here. Town rates sit below state and U.S. rates because a third of fatal crashes happen outside any town. Road safety is described here and is not part of the Safety Grade. Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2019–2023.
Hot Springs and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hot Springs | A | 1.2 | 1.2 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
South Dakota towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hot Springs | A | 1.2 | 1.2 |
| Lead | B+ | 1.5 | 5.0 |
| Summerset | B+ | 0.9 | 7.9 |
| Winner | B+ | 1.4 | 6.7 |
| Canton | B− | 2.2 | 10.5 |
| North Sioux City | C+ | 2.2 | 16.3 |
The five graded South Dakota towns closest to Hot Springs’ population (3,670), by grade.
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- It’s reported crime. Only incidents reported to and recorded by police appear here. Many crimes are never reported to police.
- One number for all of Hot Springs. A town-wide rate doesn’t show where incidents happen, and that can differ a lot from one part of town to another.
- Visitors count too. Incidents involving people who work, shop or visit are counted against Hot Springs’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (3,663 in 2025); our figure for Hot Springs is 3,670 (2025 Census estimate).
- Gaps are real gaps. A missing year means the department didn’t report a full year, not that nothing happened.
How the grade is calculated, for every town: How TownRatings grades safety →
Questions about safety in Hot Springs
Is Hot Springs, SD safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Hot Springs reports less crime per resident than 89% of U.S. towns, an A Safety Grade and #1 of 23 in South Dakota. Its police reported 1.2 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 4.0 in the rest of South Dakota and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Hot Springs?
1.2 violent and 1.2 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of South Dakota reports 4.0 and 21.9; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Hot Springs?
Hot Springs’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Hot Springs”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
Neighbors looking out for each other in Hot Springs.
Crime: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Crime Data Explorer: offenses known to law enforcement by city, 2025, and state and national rates. Counts are crimes reported to police, not convictions. The Safety Grade is our own summary of that data, not an official rating. Road deaths: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2019–2023. This isn’t an official statement of public safety. In an emergency, call 911.