33 rural counties in the SD lose 4,871 people; City’s 6 counties add 65,593 – Dakota Free Press

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According to 2020 demographics released by the United States Census Bureau on Thursday, the past decade has seen exactly half of South Dakota’s counties are gaining population and exactly half are losing:

Percent Change in Population of South Dakota Counties: 2010-2020”, United States Census Bureau, 2021.08.12.
Numerical Change in the Population of South Dakota Counties: 2010-2020”, United States Census Bureau, 2021.08.12.

South Dakota’s even split between counties gaining residents and counties losing residents is a little better than the national breakdown: 47% of counties in the United States have increased their population in the past decade.

The 33 counties that lost population – mostly in the middle, with a shrinking arm that interestingly extends east across all counties from Highway 34 – had 4,871 people in 2020 compared to 2010. Our three biggest counties and the three biggest winners numerically – Minnehaha, Pennington and Lincoln, each added significantly more people than the loss of those 33 counties. The growing 33 counties added 77,358 people, nearly sixteen times the loss of the state’s shrinking half.

Six counties accounted for 90.49% (65,593 people) of our statewide net population growth of 72,487: Minnehaha, Lincoln, Pennington, Meade, Union and Brookings. These are mainly townspeople from Sioux Falls and the suburbs it swallows to the south, Rapid City and its I-90 flanks, Brookings and the Iowa suburbs of Sioux City settling west of the Big Sioux. .

The largest county that shrank was Lake. I was under the impression that Lake County and its Madison County seat were growing. The Census Bureau thought so too, project last year that Madison would see a possible growth of 13%, reaching well over 7,000. But the official tally shows that Madison fell 4.4%, from 6,474 in 2010 to 6,191 last year, a loss of 283 people. People had to move to the lakes: Lake County as a whole was down 1.26%, losing 141 people.

Lake County was the only county with over 10,000 people to lose people. The other 32 counties that declined began the decade with four-digit populations and grew smaller. Jones County, home to Murdo, Draper, Okaton and Capa, is the only county in South Dakota with less than 1,000 residents – they lost 89 people, 8.85% of their 2010 population, to end up in 917.

Jones was not the biggest loser by number or percentage. Faulk (Faulkton), Hyde (Highmore), Ziebach (Dupree), and Jerauld (Wessington Springs) all experienced double-digit population declines. Jerauld saw the biggest drop in percentage and number: the census counted 408 fewer people in Wessington Springs and surrounding areas in 2020 than in 2010, a drop of 19.7%.

The 33 counties that lost population represent less than 15% of South Dakota’s population in 2020. 64% of South Dakotas now live in our ten largest counties.

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