Buffalo is a tiny town located in the state of South Dakota. With a population of 356 people and just one neighborhood, Buffalo is the 125th largest community in South Dakota.
Because occupations involving physical labor dominate the local economy, Buffalo is generally considered to be a blue-collar town. 51.63% of the Buffalo workforce is employed in blue-collar occupations, compared to the national average of 27.7%. Overall, Buffalo is a town of transportation and shipping workers, construction workers and builders, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Buffalo who work in management occupations (9.24%), sales jobs (7.61%), and business and financial occupations (7.07%).
Overall, Buffalo’s crime rate is one of the lowest in the nation, which makes a great place to live if safety is an important concern.
It is a fairly quiet town because there are relatively few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. (Children, for example, often can't help themselves from being noisy, and being parents ourselves, we know!) Buffalo has relatively few families with children living at home, and is quieter because of it. Renters and college students, for their own reasons, can also be noisy. Buffalo has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Buffalo than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Buffalo may be for you.
One of the benefits of Buffalo is that there is very little traffic. The average commute to work is 10.64 minutes, which is substantially less than the national average. Not only does this mean that the drive to work is less aggravating, but noise and pollution levels are lower as a result.
Buffalo is a small town, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.
The percentage of adults in Buffalo who are college-educated is close to the national average for all communities of 21.84%: 20.43% of the adults in Buffalo have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Buffalo in 2022 was $52,782, which is wealthy relative to South Dakota and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $211,128 for a family of four. However, Buffalo contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
The people who call Buffalo home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Buffalo residents report their race to be White. Important ancestries of people in Buffalo include German, Irish, Norwegian, English, and Scandinavian.
The most common language spoken in Buffalo is English. Other important languages spoken here include French and Spanish.
When you see a neighborhood for the first time, the most important thing is often the way it looks, like its homes and its setting. Some places look the same, but they only reveal their true character after living in them for a while because they contain a unique mix of occupational or cultural groups. This neighborhood is very unique in some important ways, according to NeighborhoodScout's exclusive exploration and analysis.
Unpopulated, and rural, the neighborhood is one of the least crowded neighborhoods in all of America. If you like open space, no traffic, and lots of room, this neighborhood may be just what you are looking for. According to NeighborhoodScout's leading research, this neighborhood is less densely populated than 99.6% of the neighborhoods in America.
In addition, despite all of the residential real estate here in the neighborhood, NeighborhoodScout has discovered that much of it is vacant. In resort or second-home vacation areas, this naturally occurs because homes and apartments are seasonally occupied, and empty for a portion of the year. In non-vacation or resort areas, however, this can be an indicator of property abandonment or a weak real estate market. The vacancy rate here is 29.8%, which is higher than 95.0% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
Each year, fewer and fewer Americans make their living as farmers, foresters, or fishers. But the neighborhood truly stands out among U.S. neighborhoods. According to exclusive NeighborhoodScout analysis, this neighborhood has a greater proportion of farmers, foresters, or fishers than 98.9% of all American neighborhoods. This is truly a unique cultural characteristic of this neighborhood.
We Americans love our cars. Not only are they a necessity for most Americans due to the shape of our neighborhoods and the distances between where we live, work, shop, and go to school, but we also fancy them. As a result, most households in America have one, two, or three cars. But NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis shows that the neighborhood has a highly unusual pattern of car ownership. Residents of this neighborhood must really love automobiles. NeighborhoodScout's Analysis reveals that 38.9% of the households here have four, five, or more cars. That is more cars per household than in 97.8% of the neighborhoods in the nation.
Whether walking, biking, riding, or driving, the length of one's commute is an important factor for one's quality of life. The neighborhood stands out for its commute length, according to NeighborhoodScout's analysis. Residents of the neighborhood have the pleasure of having one of the shortest commutes to work of any neighborhood in America. 62.5% of the residents have a commute time from home to work (one way) of less than fifteen minutes. This is a higher proportion of residents enjoying a short trip to work than NeighborhoodScout found in 96.8% of U.S. neighborhoods. Less time commuting means more time for other things in life.
In the neighborhood, walking to work is a real option for many. In fact, NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research reveals walking to and from work is the chosen way to commute for 11.2% of residents here. This is a higher proportion of walking commuters than we found in 95.6% of American neighborhoods. Get ready to put on your walking shoes if you move here!
If you're nearing retirement age, or in retirement, the is an excellent choice for you to consider for top-quality retirement living. This neighborhood is rated by NeighborhoodScout as among the top 5.8% of retiree-friendly neighborhoods in South Dakota, combining peace and quiet, safety from crime, and offering diverse housing options from which retirees can choose. Maybe it's because of these amenities that a large proportion of the residents here are college educated seniors, mixed with other age groups. For these and other reasons, NeighborhoodScout identifies this neighborhood as a top-notch place to consider if you are thinking of or planning to retire in South Dakota.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Belgian and Norwegian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 5.2% of this neighborhood's residents have Belgian ancestry and 21.8% have Norwegian ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 1.4% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Native American languages at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 98.4% of the neighborhoods in America.
How wealthy a neighborhood is, from very wealthy, to middle income, to low income is very formative with regard to the personality and character of a neighborhood. Equally important is the rate of people, particularly children, who live below the federal poverty line. In some wealthy gated communities, the areas immediately surrounding can have high rates of childhood poverty, which indicates other social issues. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals both aspects of income and poverty for this neighborhood.
The neighbors in the neighborhood in Buffalo are middle-income, making it a moderate income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 49.3% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 1.7% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 75.9% of America's neighborhoods.
What we choose to do for a living reflects who we are. Each neighborhood has a different mix of occupations represented, and together these tell you about the neighborhood and help you understand if this neighborhood may fit your lifestyle.
In the neighborhood, 51.9% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is manufacturing and laborer occupations, with 23.3% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (10.7%), and 9.0% in farming, forestry, or commercial fishing.
Languages
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 96.6% of households.
Ethnicity / Ancestry
Boston's Beacon Hill blue-blood streets, Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish enclaves, Los Angeles' Persian neighborhoods. Each has its own culture derived primarily from the ancestries and culture of the residents who call these neighborhoods home. Likewise, each neighborhood in America has its own culture – some more unique than others – based on lifestyle, occupations, the types of households – and importantly – on the ethnicities and ancestries of the people who live in the neighborhood. Understanding where people came from, who their grandparents or great-grandparents were, can help you understand how a neighborhood is today.
In the neighborhood in Buffalo, SD, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as German (24.8%). There are also a number of people of Norwegian ancestry (21.8%), and residents who report Irish roots (14.2%), and some of the residents are also of English ancestry (6.6%), along with some Belgian ancestry residents (5.2%), among others.
Even if your neighborhood is walkable, you may still have to drive to your place of work. Some neighborhoods are located where many can get to work in just a few minutes, while others are located such that most residents have a long and arduous commute. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (62.5% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (55.6%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also hop out the door and walk to work to get to work (11.2%) and 10.6% of residents also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors for their daily commute. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.
