Split Rock Township in pictures
The archive holds 3 maps from 1962 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Explore the history →Each edition grades its towns against each other only.

A town of 3,086. Public schools that outperform most of South Dakota.
Split Rock Township's standout: the median household earns $148K. Overall it grades A, 6th of 35 graded towns in South Dakota. Its public schools beat 92% of South Dakota towns on state tests and graduation and residents are healthier than 84% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates. Split Rock Township’s median household income is $148,000, above both South Dakota’s towns ($71,000) and U.S. towns ($80,000). Only 2 of South Dakota’s 85 towns score lower on walkability. Shafer Round Barn is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Where Split Rock Township beats most towns.
| School | Grades | Students |
|---|---|---|
| Sioux Falls Adventist School | 1–7 | 7 |
| Brandon Valley Intermediate - 07 | 5–6 | 829 |
| Widest gap | Split Rock Township | SD |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 7.1% | 12.7% |
Where Split Rock Township’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within South Dakota), ordered by how far Split Rock Township is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for jobs and income (better than 99% of comparable towns) to D for walkability (better than 10%), so the A overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
The archive holds 3 maps from 1962 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Explore the history →Who provides power, water and the rest in Split Rock Township, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Aug 3, 2026.
Ordered by what stands out in Split Rock Township.
Split Rock Township has schools in the top 5% of South Dakota, carries less natural-hazard risk than nearly all of South Dakota (mostly tornadoes) and has less tooth loss than most of South Dakota.
Its A ranks #1 of the 35 South Dakota towns we grade for schools.
Its public schools are run by the Brandon Valley School District 49-2.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brandon Valley Intermediate - 07Largest public middle schoolGrades 5–6 | Grades 5–6 | 829 | A− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within SD on state tests and graduation
Its widest gap with South Dakota is tooth loss: 7.1% of those 65+ have lost all their teeth, against 12.7% statewide. Against the 2,905 U.S. towns with household incomes like Split Rock Township’s, it is less healthy than 61%: its national edge comes with its incomes.
20% of adults binge drink in Split Rock Township. Split Rock Township beats the South Dakota average on 12 of 26 CDC measures and trails it on 0. 10% of adults report frequent physical distress in Split Rock Township.
| Split Rock Township | South Dakota towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 19% | 16% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 10% | 12% | 14% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 30% | 36% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 16% | 19% |
| What stands out | Split Rock Township | SD |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 7.1% | 12.7% |
| Fewer adults who have had a stroke | 2.6% | 3.5% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Split Rock Township has 449 jobs for its 1,846 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out.
Most working residents leave Split Rock Township for work: only 1% work in town. 0.6% of Split Rock Township residents live below the poverty line. Since 2013, Split Rock Township has added 63 jobs, to 449 in 2023.
| Split Rock Township | South Dakota towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working residents who work in town | 1.2% | 31% | 8% |
| Below the poverty line | 0.6% | 9.6% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 19 minutes | 17 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Work from home | 12% | 6.5% | 11% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk lower than 100% of South Dakota towns, with expected losses of about $2,365 per resident a year; that rating is what its A− for hazard risk is built on.
Split Rock Township’s FEMA risk score is 24 of 100.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Split Rock Township has cold, snowy winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 84°, January nights drop to 7° and about 49 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
5.6 miles of trail in 4 parks and preserves. Big Sioux Recreation Area, at 427 acres with 3 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve. The trail density in Split Rock Township is 0.2 miles per square mile.
| Split Rock Township | South Dakota towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.2 miles per square mile | 0.6 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 3.8% | 3.2% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Big Sioux Recreation Area | 3 mi | 427 |
| 2. Beaver Creek Nature Area | 1.4 mi | 150 |
| 3. Great Bear Recreation Park | — | 4 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Split Rock Township. Close and well known come first.
34 mi National MonumentPipestone National Monument77K visitors a year
9 mi Zoo & aquariumGreat Plains Zoo
7 mi MuseumWashington Pavilion of Arts and Science
8 mi MuseumPettigrew Home & Museum31 mi MuseumPorter Sculpture Park
20 mi MuseumHinkly House MuseumPipestone National Monument: Unknown, Public domain · Great Plains Zoo: Jake DeGroot, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science: Jon Platek, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Pettigrew Home & Museum: Jerry from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Hinkly House Museum: McGhiever, CC BY-SA 3.0
4 within 15 miles of the center of Split Rock Township
About 3 of every 100 Split Rock Township residents are enrolled in college, against 5 across South Dakota.
6 towns share a border with Split Rock Township.
| Town | SD rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Split Rock Township | #6 | A | C | — | A | A− |
| Sioux Falls | #27 | C+ | B− | D | C+ | B+ |
| Brandon · Brandon Township | #1 | A+ | B | — | A | A |
| Anderson | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Pine Lakes Addition | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Valley Springs Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Split Rock Township and Brandon report no FBI crime data of their own. Anderson, Pine Lakes Addition and Valley Springs Township aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Brandon Township and Brandon are one community, graded once. Compare Split Rock Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. Split Rock Township grades A overall, better than 88% of U.S. towns and #6 of 35 in South Dakota. It grades A− for health and A for schools. Walkability is its weak spot, with a D.
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C.