South Dakota continues shift away from rural areas

South Dakota's population increase of 7.9% from 2000 to 2010 was driven primarily by growth in the state's two metropolitan areas of Sioux Falls and Rapid City, in communities along interstate highways and in counties with Indian reservations, experts say.

Growth was particularly robust in counties along the eastern edge of the state, where Interstate 29 runs north-south through Sioux Falls and Watertown. "Half of the state's population is probably within an hour's drive of I-29," says Mike McCurry, a rural sociologist at South Dakota State University's Rural Life and Census Data Center in Brookings. There also was significant growth along I-90, which runs east-west through Sioux Falls and Rapid City.

Sioux Falls, the state's most populous city, grew by 24% to 153,888, according to 2010 Census data released Wednesday. Lincoln County, south of Sioux Falls, grew by 86%.

Much of the rest of the state lost population. Forty-one of the 66 counties, most of them rural, showed declines.

Census numbers where you live Click here for an interactive map with data representing where you live.

"Like the rest of the country, the farm industry here has become much more efficient," says Kenneth Blanchard, professor of political science at Northern State University in Aberdeen. "There just aren't a lot of farm jobs. So people move away to the cities where they can find jobs."

The rural population declines are a legacy of the Dust Bowl era, McCurry says, noting that South Dakota's population losses started in 1935 and did not recover to pre-Depression levels until the early 1990s.

Gregory County, in the southern part of the state, first lost population in 1910; the 2010 Census marks 100 straight years of population loss for the county, he says.

The state's minority populations grew substantially, although the state remains 85% non-Hispanic white. American Indians, who saw a 15% growth in population, now make up 9% of the state total.

The number of Hispanics and blacks each more than doubled but they still make up only slivers of the population. Hispanics now constitute about 3% and African Americans about 1%.

South Dakota's most populous cities added population, led by Sioux Falls, which grew by 24% to 153,888; Rapid City, 14% to 67,956; and Brookings, 19% to 22,056.