Updated April 2026 · U.S. Census Bureau data
North Dakota City Spending Rankings
North Dakota has 3 cities with 50,000 or more residents covered by CitySpend, totaling 260K in covered population. The average Fiscal Health Score across these cities is 60/100, sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. North Dakota's covered cities post a healthy average Fiscal Health Score of 60/100 (grade B). On the whole, North Dakota cities run balanced budgets, manageable debt loads, and adequately funded pension systems. Individual cities still vary, the rankings below show which are pulling above and below the state average.
North Dakota Fiscal Profile
Across all covered North Dakota cities, the largest aggregate spending categories are parks at $231.9M and fire protection at $109.1M. That mix reflects North Dakota's overall service-delivery model, in some states police and fire dominate; in others, education or roads take the largest aggregate share when cities operate their own school districts.
Healthiest and Most Stressed Cities
Top Fiscal Performers
Most Fiscally Stressed
All 3 Cities in North Dakota
Fargo, ND
Pop. 127K
Bismarck, ND
Pop. 74K
Grand Forks, ND
Pop. 59K
How These Rankings Are Calculated
City Fiscal Health Scores combine budget balance and reserves (25%), debt burden per capita (20%), pension funded ratio (20%), spending efficiency (15%), revenue diversity (10%), and three-year trend direction (10%). All inputs come from the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. For the largest cities, we cross-reference the Lincoln Institute's Fiscally Standardized Cities database to adjust for school-district and county overlap. Pension data comes from the Public Plans Database. Best-practice weighting follows guidance from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA). Read the full methodology.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many cities in North Dakota are covered by CitySpend?
CitySpend covers 3 cities in North Dakota with 50,000 or more residents, totaling 260K in population. Smaller municipalities, towns, and unincorporated areas are excluded from the dataset.
What is North Dakota's average Fiscal Health Score?
North Dakota's 3 covered cities post an average Fiscal Health Score of 60/100. The score combines budget balance and reserves, debt burden per capita, pension funding, spending efficiency, revenue diversity, and three-year trend direction. Each city is benchmarked against population peers, so a 200,000-resident city is compared to other mid-size cities, not against the largest cities in the country.
Where does North Dakota city spending data come from?
Every figure on this page is drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, with population estimates from the American Community Survey. For the largest cities, we cross-reference the Lincoln Institute's Fiscally Standardized Cities database to adjust for school-district overlap. Federal grant flows come from USASpending.gov; pension data, where available, comes from the Public Plans Database.
Which North Dakota cities have the strongest fiscal health?
Fargo (C), Bismarck (C), Grand Forks (C) rank among the top fiscal performers in North Dakota. Strong scores typically pair balanced budgets with low debt-per-capita and well-funded pensions. See the rankings below for the full list.
Which North Dakota cities are most fiscally stressed?
Grand Forks (C), Bismarck (C), Fargo (C) rank toward the bottom of the North Dakota fiscal health distribution. Common stress signals include pension underfunding, elevated debt service, and revenue concentration in a single tax source. A low score is a screening signal, not a verdict, always read the city's audited Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (ACFR) before drawing conclusions.
North Dakota has 3 cities with 50,000 or more residents covered by CitySpend, totaling 260K in covered population. The average Fiscal Health Score across these cities is 60/100, sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. North Dakota's covered cities post a healthy average Fiscal Health Score of 60/100 (grade B). On the whole, North Dakota cities run balanced budgets, manageable debt loads, and adequately funded pension systems. Individual cities still vary, the rankings below show which are pulling above and below the state average.
The this entity record above pulls directly from the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. What follows is the per-entity context — how this entity sits in the broader U.S. municipal and county government finances distribution and which underlying factors drive the headline numbers.
Every number on this page links back to the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances; the methodology page describes the inputs, refresh cadence, and known limitations of the underlying data product.
For readers using this page as a decision input, the related-entity pages elsewhere on the site provide the comparison set. The most useful comparison for this entity is typically a peer within U.S. cities, counties, and states with similar size, similar exposure, or similar geography — not the national-level summary alone.