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Rapid City, South Dakota

Randolph
(Brown County)

Rapid City East
(Pennington County)

Open an interactive map for Rapid City and the surrounding area.

Current Weather

The 2000 Census showed that Rapid City had a population of 59,607 people ^<1>. This represents 7.89% of the total population of South Dakota, making it the state's 2nd most populous community.

The following table shows the recent changes in population. For the years after 2000, the population counts are estimated.

Year	Population	Change Since 2000	Year-to-Year Change
2008	65,491	+9.87%	+2.36% since 2007
2007	63,978	+7.33%	+1.66% since 2006
2006	62,932	+5.58%	+1.27% since 2005
2005	62,145	+4.26%	+0.74% since 2004
2004	61,689	+3.49%	+1.56% since 2003
2003	60,744	+1.91%	+0.62% since 2002
2002	60,368	+1.28%	+0.45% since 2001
2001	60,097	+0.82%	+0.82% since 2000
---
2000	59,607	The Last Census

Below is a list of similarily sized communities (while rank is based on the 2000 Census, the population shown is estimated for 2008):

Rank in 2000	Community	Direction	Distance ^<2>	2008 Population	Change Since 2000
1	Sioux Falls	E	325 mi [523 km]	154,997	25.02% increase
-2-	Rapid City			65,491	9.87% increase
3	Aberdeen	NE	251 mi [403.9 km]	24,460	0.8% decrease
4	Watertown	E	304 mi [489.2 km]	20,488	1.24% increase
5	Brookings	E	319 mi [513 km]	19,865	7.36% increase
6	Mitchell	E	259 mi [416.8 km]	14,752	1.33% increase
7	Pierre	E	145 mi [233.4 km]	13,899	0.17% increase

Rapid City had 25,096 Housing Units ^<3> at the time of the 2000 Census.

The 2000 Census shows that Rapid City has an area ^<4> of 44.59 square miles [115.5 km²].

Using the above population and land area values, Rapid City had a 2000 population density of 1,336 people per square mile [516 people/km²], making it the state's 49th most densely populated area.

Pennington County

The city of Rapid City is located in Pennington County and is the county seat.

The county had a population of 88,794 people at the 2000 Census. With it's population of 59,607 people, Rapid City contained 67.1% of the Pennington County total.

In addition, where the community of Rapid City has a population density of 1,336 people per square mile [516 people/km²], Pennington County averages 31.98 people per square mile [12.35 people/km²].

For more information, please visit our Census Page for Pennington County.

Population Rings

To help identify the number of people who live in Rapid City and the surrounding area, we have drawn concentric rings centered on Rapid City. We counted the number of communities within each ring and summed their populations.^<5>

Radius	No of Communities	2008 Population	Change Since 2000
5 mi [8 km]	2	79,826	9.39% increase
10 mi [16 km]	4	90,143	9.69% increase
15 mi [24 km]	6	91,884	9.88% increase
25 mi [40 km]	10	104,020	8.13% increase
30 mi [48 km]	16	116,921	7.62% increase

US Census QuickFacts

The Census Bureau has created documents containing demographic information called QuickFacts. Although they don't create QuickFacts for all communities, they do have one for Rapid City. Not only does the QuickFact have details about Rapid City, it also contains a comparison between Rapid City and the state of South Dakota.

Click here for the Rapid City QuickFact (QF-4652980).

A Census Quickfact is available for Pennington County (QF-46103).

Miscellaneous Information

The Federal government has assigned identifying codes to each community, county and state. The following FIPS codes apply to Rapid City:

	State Code:	46 (South Dakota)
	County Code:	103 (Pennington County)
	Place Code:	52980 (Rapid City)

	State & County Code:	46103 (South Dakota/Pennington County)

	State & Place Code:	4652980 (South Dakota/Rapid City)

Rapid City is located in Census Region #2 (the Midwest Region) and in Division #4 (the West North-Central Division).

For more information about various Federal Codes, please visit our Misc. Page for Rapid City.

The Commemorative
Quarter for
South Dakota ^<6>

Search for Local Businesses

Google's 'Search-by-Location' is a very useful tool for people who might be planning visits to this area. We have prepared the following searches to help you find businesses, travel and vacation activities that are in (or close to) Rapid City. It's likely that the search results won't include all of the businesses that are in this area, but the results should give you a good foundation for further searches.

For what it's worth: In addition to helping you submit your own search, clicking 'Other...' will frequently (but not always) show you some popular searches for this area.

If you find an error or your business wasn't included in the results, please contact Google to help them resolve the issue (we simply link to 'Search-by-Location' and have no control over their results).

Other Roadside Stops

About South Dakota

About Pennington County

Find a Community within South Dakota

Off-the-Road Links

U.S. Census Bureau

The following websites contain collections of photos taken around Rapid City:

Flickr.com

Panoramio.com

Looking for more websites and/or information centered on Rapid City? Please visit the Map Page for Rapid City.

Footnotes

<1>	Population counts have been provided by the U.S. Census Bureau. - Return to Citation
<2>	Our distances are calculated as a straight-line (or point-to-point) distance between Rapid City and the indicated community. The distance should be treated as an estimate and not as the driving distance. - Return to Citation
<3>	A Housing Unit is a broad term for those places where people live, whether occupied or temporarily vacant, such as a house, an apartment, a mobile home, or an area that is considered as a separate living quarter. Separate living quarters (consisting of one or more rooms) are considered to be those places where people live, sleep and eat separately from others and that have access to the outside (either directly or by a shared hallway). - Return to Citation
<4>	The area value has been supplied by the US Census Bureau and it can be different than the geographic boundaries of Rapid City. The value given by the Census Bureau reflects their statistical (or sampling) requirements. For example, if there is a cluster of people living just outside of the community's official boundary, the Census-defined area might be expanded to include that group of people. - Return to Citation
<5>	The communities in our count are those provided by the 2000 Census, so keep in mind that our population rings will only include the people living in those communities. Smaller communities usually don't participate directly in the Census and therefore they won't be included. While our count is a close approximation, it shouldn't be considered as a complete or accurate count. - Return to Citation
<6>	All Quarter-dollar coin images from the United States Mint. - Return to Citation

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Last Modified: 05 Nov 2009