Bismarck, ND Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
1,970 ft 600 m1,880 ft 575 m1,840 ft 560 m1,750 ft 535 m1,670 ft 510 m1,620 ft 495 m
Contours every 200 ft, bold every 1,000 ft
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
How to use this mapviews, tools and data
- Elevation
- Ground colored by height from green (lowest) to white (highest), with contour lines every 40–500 ft (USGS data).
- Satellite
- A 2016 satellite photo at 33 ft (10 m) detail; contours off.
- 3D
- Tilt and turn the terrain; hills are raised 1.5×, or set ×1 for true height.
- Click or tap anywhere
- The exact elevation of that spot in ft and m.
- Measure
- Pick two points for the climb, descent and grade along a straight line.
- City area
- Fades everything outside the official city limits (US Census).
Elevation Data
Bismarck sits at about 1,770 ft (540 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
1,770 ft 540 m
most residents: 1,640–1,870 ft
Lowest
1,620 ft 495 m
on the southwest side
Highest
1,970 ft 600 m
on the north side
Average
1,740 ft 530 m
all land inside city limits
Bismarck spans about 350 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where its people live, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.
| Figure | Elevation |
|---|---|
| Typical Where people live: half of residents higher, half lower | 1,770 ft540 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, on the north side | 1,970 ft600 m |
| Lowest point Inside city limits, on the southwest side | 1,620 ft495 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Bismarck | 1,690 ft515 m |
| Airport (BIS) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways | 1,661 ft506 m |
| Average of all land | 1,740 ft530 m |
Elevation profile, south to north
8.0 mi south to north through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- City in Burleigh County, North Dakota, United States
- Population
- 77,772 2024 est.
- Land area
- 36.3 sq mi + 0.5 sq mi water
- Density
- 2,145 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 46.8083° N, 100.7837° W
- Time zone
- Central UTC−6 / −5
- Landform region
- Great Plains
- Drains to
- Missouri River → Mississippi River → Gulf of America
- Airport
- Bismarck Municipal (BIS) 1,661 ft
- ZIP codes 4
- 58501 58503 58504 58505
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS, FAA
Nearby Places
Nearby towns by typical elevation
- Naughton Township2,010 ft
- Gibbs Township1,850 ft
- Hay Creek Township1,840 ft
- Missouri Township1,780 ft
- Bismarck1,770 ft
- Menoken Township1,720 ft
- Apple Creek Township1,720 ft
- Mandan1,710 ft
- Lincoln1,700 ft
- Apple Valley1,670 ft
- Captain's Landing Township1,640 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in North Dakota628th highest of 1,711
- Towns in Burleigh County34th highest of 45
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Keever Butte2,160 ft
- Solberg Butte2,142 ft
- Coal Butte, Burleigh County2,100 ft
- Burnt Butte2,010 ft
- Twin Buttes, Burleigh County1,840 ft
How we measure
- Typical elevation: the population-weighted median: every 2020 Census block inside the city limits, at its USGS 3DEP height, weighted by the people who live there. Half of residents live higher, half lower.
- Lowest, highest, average: USGS 3DEP bare-earth heights on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid, land only, inside the Census city limits (TIGER, Jan 1 2026).
- Nearby Places: nearby towns and rankings use each town's typical elevation, so every town is compared like for like. Rankings count every city, town, township and census-designated place, including places inside a town. Peaks and hills: the nearest summits with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence within 62 mi (100 km), then federal (GNIS) summits within 16 mi (25 km) when there are fewer than 5; each is the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a usable survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it (shown as published).
- Rounding: computed heights are rounded to 10 ft (5 m), or to 1 ft (1 m) under 100 ft; 3DEP is good to about a meter, not a foot. Published figures (FAA airport elevation, NGS survey heights) are shown as their publisher gives them.
- Datum: North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). NGS plans to replace NAVD 88 with a new datum (NAPGD2022); heights will then shift slightly.
- Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (boundaries, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, Gazetteer areas, ZIP code areas); FAA airport data; BTS time zones; NOAA NGS survey heights. All public domain.