Cities and Towns
See also: List of cities in South Dakota and List of South Dakota countiesSioux Falls is the largest city in South Dakota, with a 2010 population of 153,888, and a metropolitan area population of 238,122. The city, founded in 1856, is located in the southeast corner of the state. Retail, finance, and healthcare have assumed greater importance in Sioux Falls, where the economy was originally centered on agri-business and quarrying.
Rapid City, with a 2010 population of 67,956, and a metropolitan area population of 124,766, is the second-largest city in the state. It is located on the eastern edge of the Black Hills, and was founded in 1876. Rapid City's economy is largely based on tourism and defense spending, because of the close proximity of many tourist attractions in the Black Hills and Ellsworth Air Force Base.
The next eight largest cities in the state, in order of descending 2010 population, are Aberdeen (26,091), Brookings (22,056), Watertown (21,482), Mitchell (15,254), Yankton (14,454), Pierre (13,646), Huron (12,592), and Vermillion (10,571). Pierre is the state capital, and Brookings and Vermillion are the locations of the state's two largest universities. Of the ten largest cities in the state, only Rapid City is located west of the Missouri River.
Read more about this topic: Economy Of South Dakota
Famous quotes containing the words cities and/or towns:
“We are in danger ... of making our cities places where business goes on but where life, in its real sense, is lost.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)
“The incessant repetition of the same hand-work dwarfs the man, robs him of his strength, wit, and versatility, to make a pin- polisher, and buckle-maker, or any other specialty; and presently, in a change of industry, whole towns are sacrificed like ant-hills, when cotton takes the place of linen, or railways of turnpikes, or when commons are inclosed by landlords.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)