Best States for Off-Grid Living / North Dakota

North Dakota · off-grid scores, county by county · 2026

Which North Dakota counties score best for off-grid living?

Of the 53 North Dakota counties we have scored, Ransom County scores highest at 82 and Renville County lowest at 64. North Dakota ranks 38th of 50 overall, at 75 out of 100 (Significant challenges). Water separates its counties most: 8 to 19 out of 25.

Updated 2026-09-27 · 53 counties · 273 spots of private rural land scored

Every scored county in North Dakota, best score first

Score is out of 100: Water 25, Legal 20, Solar 15, Hazard 15, Food 15, Buildability 10. Green cells score 80% or better of their maximum; amber cells under 70%.

Where the good land is

9% of North Dakota's private rural land scores Good with caveats or better (80 or more). The strongest counties are Ransom, Barnes and Dickey. The weakest are Renville, McKenzie and Traill. Where the land falls short, it is most often on growing food (season, soil and water for crops) and water (rain, wells and salty or weak wells).

What separates them

• Water: Ransom County scores 19 of 25, Renville County 8. Drinking, system, and irrigation water, the #1 reason off-grid and homestead plans collapse. A low score means a deep, costly well or hauled water.
• Buildability: Dickey County scores 10 of 10, Mercer County 6. Slope, the septic the ground needs, footings, and the county's land price. A steep or soggy lot that fails a septic test is the dealbreaker photos hide.
• Solar: Hettinger County scores 12 of 15, Walsh County 8. Year-round solar potential, including the darkest month, and how much energy it takes to heat and cool a house there. Matters most if you're fully off-grid.
• Food: Ransom County scores 10 of 15, Golden Valley County 6. Soil quality, frost-free growing days, and rainfall: what decides whether you can actually feed yourself and your animals.
• Legal: Ransom County scores 20 of 20, Traill County 16. Whether you can reach the land and live on it: road access, distance to emergency care, internet and cell, and how built up the area is, which decides how many lot-size, livestock, and zoning rules you will meet.

Hazard barely moves across the sample: the counties score within two points of each other there, so those are state-level facts, not county choices.

The state's soft spot

Food is North Dakota's weakest dimension, at 8 of 15 for the state as a whole. Soil quality, frost-free growing days, and rainfall: what decides whether you can actually feed yourself and your animals. Getting a parcel here off-grid runs $32k to $128k by our estimates across these counties, before the house. The full North Dakota row in the Best States ranking has the state-wide spread and how the popular off-grid guides rank it.

Before you buy in North Dakota

The scores read the physical land. Whether you may legally live on it is a separate question, and it changes at the county line: Is it legal to live off-grid in North Dakota? covers zoning, building code, septic, and wells for the state, with the counties that opt out. For the reason water carries a quarter of the score, how you get water on off-grid land is the read. And the five-point check is the order to do it in.