907,428 people live in South Dakota, which places it 46th of the 51 states (with the District of Columbia). Census figures on income, housing, education and the local business mix, and what they imply for a business advertising here.
Statewide numbers first; the 2 metro pages linked below carry the same breakdown for each market. The biggest of them, Sioux Falls, SD-MN, holds 298,181 residents.
The typical household income is $75,081, 7 percent below the national figure. The typical owner-occupied home is valued at $257,400, 23 percent below the national figure. Together they say a good deal about the ticket sizes a local business can expect.
Homeownership is 68.6% here, 3 points above the US share; that is the pool of people who hire roofers, plumbers and landscapers rather than calling a landlord. Median age 38, 0.9 years below the national median. Of 475,223 people in the labor force, 2.9% are unemployed, 2 points below the US share. 31.9% of adults finished a four-year degree or more (4 points below the US share).
Against its largest metro, the median income is 9 percent lower than the Sioux Falls metro figure, the median home value is 13 percent lower than the Sioux Falls metro figure, and the number of businesses per resident is 4 percent denser than the Sioux Falls metro figure; see the Sioux Falls, SD-MN page for the full figures.
How crowded is the market overall? South Dakota has 29,106 employer establishments. Relative to population, 32.1 per 1,000 residents, 28 percent above the national figure. The home-services slice is 1,623 establishments, 5.6% of the base, about the same as the US share.
| Trade (NAICS) | Count | Per 100,000 | Index vs US |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants and other eating places | 1,577 | 173.8 | 0.73× |
| Lessors of real estate (all) | 498 | 54.9 | 1.05× |
| General freight trucking | 495 | 54.5 | 1.21× |
| Legal services | 420 | 46.3 | 0.67× |
| Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors | 401 | 44.2 | 1.04× |
| General automotive repair | 396 | 43.6 | 1.34× |
| Landscaping services | 376 | 41.4 | 0.92× |
| Electrical contractors | 341 | 37.6 | 1.18× |
| Physicians' offices | 341 | 37.6 | 0.45× |
| Dentists | 317 | 34.9 | 0.67× |
| Personal care services (all) | 317 | 34.9 | 0.57× |
| Child day care services | 280 | 30.9 | 0.98× |
| Concrete foundation and structure contractors | 241 | 26.6 | 2.96× |
| Grocery and convenience retailers | 232 | 25.6 | 0.67× |
| Automobile dealers | 210 | 23.1 | 1.28× |
| Beauty salons | 160 | 17.6 | 0.55× |
| Other specialty trade contractors (paving, asphalt, fencing) | 159 | 17.5 | 1.07× |
| Roofing contractors | 105 | 11.6 | 1.18× |
| Highway, street and bridge construction | 77 | 8.5 | 2.39× |
| Self-storage facilities | 48 | 5.3 | 0.74× |
Index: local share of all establishments divided by the US share; above 1 means the trade is more common here than nationally.
The market over-indexes on concrete contractors, road and paving contractors, general automotive repair and automobile dealers. At the top of that list, concrete contractors number 241, 3 times the US share. Where the base is lighter: physicians' offices, beauty salons, personal care services and dentists. Physicians' offices: 341 establishments, about half of the national share. Plumbing and HVAC contractors, specialty trade contractors and landscaping services sit near their national proportions.
Three categories dominate by count: restaurants at 1,577, real estate lessors at 498 and general freight trucking at 495. Relative to population the leaders are restaurants (173.8 per 100,000 residents), real estate lessors and general freight trucking. The group picture: automotive businesses above the national pattern at 1.3 times, medical and dental practices below it at about half of.
For concrete contractors, road and paving contractors and general automotive repair, expect the Google Ads auction to be contested: more advertisers per search means higher cost per click and a real premium on ad relevance, landing-page quality and call tracking that proves which keywords produce jobs. A business in physicians' offices, beauty salons and personal care services enters a lightly contested auction. That is the time to build organic visibility and a review base before the category fills in. The population is younger than the national median (0.9 years below the national median), which raises the value of Instagram, streaming and AI-answer visibility next to search. Homeownership of 68.6% is above the national share; more of the households that search for home services are also the ones that decide and pay.
Matched to the data: the services most likely to earn their cost in South Dakota.
Search campaigns built around the searches people in South Dakota actually type, with the geography fenced to where the work is.
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Design and build of a site that turns local traffic into leads.
Being the answer when people ask an AI assistant who to call in South Dakota.
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Data: US Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year estimates and County Business Patterns 2023.