Buying in Pierce County, North Dakota

Pierce County at a glance

Pierce County is one of 53 counties and county-equivalents in North Dakota. Its county seat is Rugby. County government publishes its offices and parcel tools online. Official county website. Its 2024 Census Bureau population estimate is 3,853 across 1,019 square miles of land — about 4 people per square mile. In the FBI's 2024 reported-crime file, agencies here reported 27 offenses — 7.01 per 1,000 residents; the breakdown is below.

Records to check before you buy in Pierce County

• Property record card — the Pierce County assessor / appraisal office. Pull the parcel's assessed-value history, exemption status, and last sale. This is the file your future tax bill is calculated from, and it shows whether the current owner is enjoying exemptions you will not inherit. County government sits in Rugby; the official county website is the reliable route to the parcel search and the office directory.
• Deeds & liens — the Pierce County recorder / land-records office. Read the deed chain, open liens, easements, and plat maps — the file a listing never mentions.
• Official flood determination. Check the exact parcel on FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer — not the listing site's licensed model. Zone boundaries cut through streets; the house next door can be in a different zone. Pierce County is the primary county for 3 ZIP codes in the Census Bureau's ZIP-to-county crosswalk — and zone lines ignore every one of them.
• The county's reported-crime record. In the FBI's 2024 file, agencies in Pierce County reported 27 offenses — 7.01 per 1,000 residents; the largest single category was larceny-theft (16). The crime section below sets that beside the North Dakota county median.
• Registry check. Run the address through North Dakota Sex Offender Registry (North Dakota Office of Attorney General) and note the counts within a mile — then check again the week you close.
• Permits & code history — the Pierce building department. Open permits, expired permits, and code cases tell you whether the renovation in the photos was ever inspected. County permitting is run out of Rugby.
• School assignment — the district office, not the listing. Only the district's own boundary lookup confirms which school an address is actually zoned for.

County list, land area and population: U.S. Census Bureau (population: 2024 PEP estimate). County seat and official website: Wikidata (CC0), checked 2026-11-04. Flood determinations: FEMA. Registry: North Dakota.

Reported crime in Pierce County — FBI 2024

Reported crime in Pierce County in 2024 was overwhelmingly property crime: agencies logged 27 offenses, of which 26 were property offenses and 1 violent. The total rate is 7.01 per 1,000 residents (violent 26.0, property 674.8 per 100,000).

Inside North Dakota, the median county in the same file recorded a violent-crime rate of 91 per 100,000 and a property-crime rate of 500 per 100,000 (medians computed from the FBI 2024 county file across 53 counties).

The largest reported categories were larceny-theft (16), motor vehicle theft (8) and burglary (2).

Coverage: 2 of 2 law-enforcement agencies assigned to this county reported at least one month of 2024 offense data to the FBI; 2 reported all 12 months. Counts are reported offenses only (FBI Return A / Arson master files), assigned whole to each agency's primary county; they are not adjusted for non-reporting agencies.

These are offenses reported to law enforcement — not convictions, and not a verdict on any street or address. A CurbFacts report pairs this county record with the ZIP-level picture for the specific address you are buying.

Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, UCR Return A + Arson master files, data year 2024 (pulled 2026-11-04).

The North Dakota rules that apply in Pierce County

Traps researched for North Dakota buyers: New HOA and condominium resale disclosure (2025); Radon disclosure added in 2025.

Read the full North Dakota guide — disclosure standard, tax math, registry and flood

More North Dakota counties

All North Dakota counties · North Dakota buyer guide