Meade County area

Population and density of Meade County

The Census Bureau estimates that 30,711 people lived in Meade County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,463 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #6 of 66 in South Dakota. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 29,847, the population has grown by 864 (+2.9%), compared with +5.5% for South Dakota as a whole.

With 3,470.9 square miles of land, that is 8.8 people per square mile (3.4 per km²), placing Meade County #2,685 nationally for density and #23 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 72 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 Meade County

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in Meade County. Together they are home to 16,585 people (54%); the other 14,126 (46%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Sturgis city, with 6,922 residents in the county. By land, Box Elder city is the largest at 14.9 mi² across all its counties. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Box Elder city grew fastest since then (+15%).

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

Metropolitan area

Meade County is an outlying county of the Rapid City, SD Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 156,934 residents on 7,804.6 square miles of land; Meade County accounts for 44.5% of the land and 19.6% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #20 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #285 by population. It belongs to the Rapid City-Spearfish, SD Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

19 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Meade County; 14 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

57626577015770257706577185771957737577415774857758577615776757769577855778757788577915779257793

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 Meade County

Meade County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Perkins County (2,870.5 mi²) and the smallest is Lawrence County (800.1 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Meade County forms a block of 14,129.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 24.6%.

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

Meade County has more land than 2 of the 50 states. It is about 1.8 times the land area of Delaware (1,948.6 mi²), while Connecticut, the next larger state, has 1.4 times as much land (4,842.5 mi²). South Dakota’s county land could hold about 22 areas the size of Meade County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 58.9 miles (94.8 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 Meade County?

Meade County has more land than 3,078 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 Meade County at #155 nationally by total area, 11 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 0.3%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.8 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 Meade 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.