Lawrence County area

Population and density of Lawrence County

The Census Bureau estimates that 29,459 people lived in Lawrence County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,504 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #8 of 66 in South Dakota. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 25,771, the population has grown by 3,688 (+14.3%), compared with +5.5% for South Dakota as a whole.

With 800.1 square miles of land, that is 37 people per square mile (14 per km²), placing Lawrence County #1,832 nationally for density and #9 in South Dakota. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the South Dakota median is 5.7. Put another way, there are about 17 acres of land per resident.

U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates. Estimates are revised each year and are not decennial census counts. Density divides the whole population by the whole county’s land area, so it describes an average, not how settlement is distributed within the county. Population sources and methods.

Cities and towns in Lawrence County

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in Lawrence County. Together they are home to 19,671 people (66.8%); the other 9,788 (33.2%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Spearfish city, with 14,154 residents in the county. The county seat, Deadwood city, has 1,360 residents. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Deadwood city grew fastest since then (+18.4%).

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each place inside Lawrence County. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer, for the whole place even where it extends into other counties. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Lawrence County is a central county of the Spearfish, SD Micropolitan Statistical Area. Lawrence County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 800.1 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #263 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #444 by population. It belongs to the Rapid City-Spearfish, SD Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

9 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Lawrence County; 7 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

577175773257754577595777957783577855779357799

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Lighter codes have less than half of their land in this county. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Lawrence County

Lawrence County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents, including 2 in Wyoming. Each of them has more land than Lawrence County. The largest neighbor is Meade County (3,470.9 mi²) and the smallest is Butte County (2,250 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Lawrence County forms a block of 14,550.2 mi² of land, of which it holds 5.5%.

How big is Lawrence County compared with U.S. states?

Lawrence County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.3 times as much. South Dakota’s county land could hold about 95 areas the size of Lawrence County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 28.3 miles (45.5 km) on each side. Real county shapes are rarely square, so this is a scale reference rather than a width or driving distance.

State figures are the sums of each state’s county-equivalent land measurements in the same Census release, so states and counties are compared on the same basis. Published state totals can differ slightly because of rounding. Compare all states · Counties bigger than entire states.

What stands out about Lawrence County?

Lawrence County has more land than 2,156 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

A median is the middle county-equivalent measurement, not the average of the largest and smallest. All three bars use the same linear scale. Very small areas may appear as a thin sliver; the labels retain their values.

Does including water change its rank?

Using land plus water places Lawrence County at #1,181 nationally by total area, 115 places farther from the top than its land rank. Other county equivalents gain more area when their water measurements are included.

Its water share is 0%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.1 percentage points lower. This describes the statistical geography’s land/water mix, not flood exposure or developable land.

Closest positions in the national land ranking

These entries sit immediately beside Lawrence County in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Calculated from the same Census release as the area table. Total-area order uses original ALAND + AWATER; water shares and chart labels use published square miles. Calculation details.