If you’re married, the thought of divorce has probably popped into your mind at least once.
Come on, admit it.
And if you’re not married, let me tell you that there’s gonna be a point at 2 a.m. when you have a crying baby and haven’t slept in two months that it’s gonna run through your head to run.
Far.
Away.
But, don’t just take my word for it, take the word of the some 71,857 people living in South Dakota over fifteen years of age who are divorced. Or compare that to the 28,339,199 dAmericans who are already divorced in 2019.
A lot of people make the decision to run away – or simply split up – across the Mount Rushmore State.
Isn’t the divorce rate in America close to 50%? Yes indeed. But that’s not quite what we’re measuring; we are looking at counts and percentages of people over 15 years old who are currently divorced.
You typically calculate that 50% statistic as percent of marriages.
But we are just going to focus on the actual number of divorced people today — what better way to measure marital misery than the straight count of people in South Dakota it affects?
So now that we have you biting your nails, rethinking your world view, and pulling out your hair, let’s take a look at the places in South Dakota with highest rates of divorcees.
The 10 Cities In South Dakota With The Highest Divorce Rates
Let’s quickly recap before we dive into the methodology and a closer look at the top ten places in SD.
What is the city in South Dakota with the highest divorce rate? That would be Deadwood, with 22.3% of people over 15 years of age being divorced, per the most recent census data.
What is the overall South Dakota divorce rate? According to the 2013-2017 Community Survey, the overall divorce rate in South Dakota is 10.5%, which compares to the US divorce rate of 10.9%.
Alrighty, on to how we calculated the places with the highest divorce rates in South Dakota.
For more South Dakota reading, check out:
- 10 Best Places To Live In South Dakota
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How We Determined The Places In South Dakota That Get Un-Hitched The Most
Since that this is the 58th category of rankings we are compiling for the site, we had a pretty good idea where to find data on marriage and divorce in America — the U.S. Census Bureau. Because who likes tracking misery more than the U.S. government?
Specifically, we looked at the 2013-2017 American Community Survey specifically table S1201 — Marital Status.
Pretty straight forward on that front — we just had to extract the following column of data:
- Population 15 Years and Over -> Divorced
There’s some kinda interesting/fun/sad data in there like .1% of female Americans aged 15-19 are divorced, but 0% of males (That’s probably a rounding issue, but still).
But the national data is for another day, today the analysis focuses on the 66 places in South Dakota with a population of over 1,000.
We ranked each of these places by the percentage of divorcees over 15 years of age from highest to lowest. We crowned the divorce capital of South Dakota the place with the highest incidence of divorcees, Deadwood.
And if you’re trying to avoid divorce, check out Crooks, the city with the lowest divorce rate in South Dakota.
Now on to a deeper look at the top ten.
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Belle Fourche is a city in and the county seat of Butte County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 5,594 at the 2010 census.
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Population: 1,182
Divorce Rate: 20.1%
Divorcees: 213
Median Income: $26,550
More on Eagle Butte: Data
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Population: 1,180
Divorce Rate: 19.9%
Divorcees: 211
Median Income: $52,857
More on Hill City: Data
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Population: 1,962
Divorce Rate: 19.8%
Divorcees: 349
Median Income: $41,429
More on Springfield: Data
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Lead is a city in Lawrence County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 3,124 at the 2010 census. Lead is located in western South Dakota, in the Black Hills near the Wyoming state line.
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Hot Springs is a city in and the county seat of Fall River County, South Dakota, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 3,711. In addition, neighboring Oglala Lakota County contracts the duties of Auditor, Treasurer and Register of Deeds to the Fall River County authority in Hot Springs.
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Getting Some Closure In South Dakota After Untying The Know
Besides just coming up with what we thought would be a great new blog/book title, “Untying the Knot In South Dakota: Life After Divorce”, we now have a sense of what places in the Mount Rushmore State don’t pay much attention to the whole “’til death do we part” phrase.
Try to keep in mind that the reason cities rank where they do in South Dakota could be because of the age, education, and income distribution, as all of those things impact the rate of divorce.
And, in all honestly, that’s probably for the best. It’s much better to get out of a toxic relationship than stay it.
Just make sure you have your running shoes ready to go.
For more South Dakota reading, check out:
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- These Are The 10 Richest Cities In South Dakota
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