Sioux Falls is a city located in Lincoln County and Minnehaha County South Dakota. It is also the county seat of Minnehaha County. With a 2023 population of 203,287, it is the largest city in South Dakota and the 117th largest city in the United States.Sioux Falls is currently growing at a rate of 1.71% annually and its population has increased by 5.2% since the most recent census, which recorded a population of 193,233 in 2020. Spanning over 79 miles, Sioux Falls has a population density of 2,599 people per square mile.
The average household income in Sioux Falls is $79,847 with a poverty rate of 12.37%. The median rental costs in recent years comes to - per month, and the median house value is -. The median age in Sioux Falls is 34.2 years, 33.3 years for males, and 35 years for females.
Sioux Falls is the state of South Dakota's largest city and the county seat of Minnehaha County. Sioux Falls is located on the banks of the Big Sioux River where Interstate 29 and 90 join.
The city proper has a population density of 2,109 people per square mile (814/square kilometer). The Sioux Falls metropolitan area has a population of nearly 250,000, which accounts for almost one-third of the state's entire population. The Sioux Falls-Sioux City Designated Market Area, a media market region covering four states, has a population estimated at 1.04 million.
Sioux Falls Diversity and Religion
Once South Dakota became a state in 1889, the region was settled by immigrants from Europe, particularly from Scandinavia and Germany. These remain the largest ethnic groups in the area. Lutherans account for the majority religion in Sioux Falls, followed by Roman Catholics.
Sioux Falls Population Growth
Sioux Falls is one of the 50 fastest-growing cities in America and South Dakota's fastest-growing metropolitan area. Between 2000 and 2010, the city grew 22%. The most recent population estimate found that Sioux Falls has a population of 169,900 as of January 1, 2015, a growth of nearly 14,000 people over four years. Most of the new residents to the city are coming from Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, although many are coming from Southern California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. By 2035, the population of Sioux Falls is projected to reach 233,000.
The Big Sioux River falls were created during the last ice age, and they have attracted many people to the land since then. Many indigenous peoples inhabited the area before Europeans arrived, including the Dakota, Nakota, Cheyenne, Quapaw, Kansa, and Missouri people. The high bluffs close to the river are still the site of several burial grounds from the region's early history.
French explorers were the first Europeans to arrive in the early 18th century. The first European American who visited was Philander Prescott in 1832. In 1856, the Dakota Land Company from St. Paul and the Western Town Company from Iowa organized to claim the land surrounding the falls. A temporary barricade was constructed called Fort Sod to respond to hostility from neighboring tribes. That first year, 17 men wintered in the region. The next year, Sioux Falls' population grew to 40.
In 1865, Fort Dakota was established in present-day downtown and a new wave of settlers came to the region. By 1873, the Village of Sioux Falls had 593 people. It was granted a city charter in 1883. The area experienced a large boom that decade as the railroads arrived and Sioux Falls' population grew from 2,100 in 1880 to more than 10,100 by 1890, although the growth slowed to a virtual standstill the next decade due to depression and a plague of grasshoppers.
By 1955, the city consolidated the neighboring city of South Sioux Falls, which had a population of 1,600. The population has proliferated since the 1970s, hitting 81,000 in 1980 and 153,000 in 2010.