Minnehaha County area

Population and density of Minnehaha County

The Census Bureau estimates that 212,691 people lived in Minnehaha County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #339 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #1 of 66 in South Dakota. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 197,205, the population has grown by 15,486 (+7.9%), compared with +5.5% for South Dakota as a whole.

With 806.9 square miles of land, that is 264 people per square mile (102 per km²), placing Minnehaha County #554 nationally for density and #1 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 2.4 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 Minnehaha County

11 incorporated places lie at least partly in Minnehaha County. Together they are home to 197,051 people (92.6%); the other 15,640 (7.4%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Sioux Falls city, with 172,103 residents in the county (the city extends into 1 other county). Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Sioux Falls city grew fastest since then (+9.9%).

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

Metropolitan area

Minnehaha County is a central county of the Sioux Falls, SD-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 5 county equivalents have 314,638 residents on 3,057.9 square miles of land; Minnehaha County accounts for 26.4% of the land and 67.6% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #97 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #171 by population.

ZIP codes

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

5700357005570155701857020570225703057033570355704157048570535705557068571035710457105571065710757108571105711757197

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 Minnehaha County

Minnehaha County shares a land border with 7 county equivalents, including 2 in Minnesota and Iowa. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Turner County (617.1 mi²) and the smallest is Rock County (482.5 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Minnehaha County forms a block of 4,727.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 17.1%.

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

Minnehaha 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 94 areas the size of Minnehaha County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 28.4 miles (45.7 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 Minnehaha County?

Minnehaha County has more land than 2,169 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 Minnehaha County at #1,148 nationally by total area, 95 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 0.9%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.3 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 Minnehaha 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.