Lake County, SD
Demographic and economic profile of Lake County, SD, sourced from the US Census Bureau (American Community Survey) via Data USA.
AI Overview
Lake County, SD is a small rural county of 11,052 residents that has shed 12.1% of its population over the past five years, though it retains a low unemployment rate of 2.4% and a labor force participation rate of 67.2%. The workforce skews slightly older at a median age of 43.8, with 34.7% holding a bachelor's degree or higher and median worker earnings of $38,824, supported by a median household income of $76,808. Housing costs remain modest—median home value of $231,000 and median gross rent of $868/month—with a homeownership rate of 73.8% and a mean commute of just 15.7 minutes.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 · generated Jul 6, 2026 · derived from cached Census, BEA & ACS data on this page
Population Growth (5-year)
-12.1% since 2018
Lake County lost population at this rate over the prior 5-year ACS5 window.
Demographics
Race & Ethnicity
- White Alone9,978 (90.9%)
- Some Other Race Alone278 (2.5%)
- American Indian & Alaska Native Alone276 (2.5%)
- Two Races Including Some Other Race157 (1.4%)
- Two Races Excluding Some Other Race, & Three or More Races103 (0.9%)
- Asian Alone81 (0.7%)
Top Languages Spoken at Home
- 1.Spanish272
- 2.German or other West Germanic74
- 3.Tagalog (incl. Filipino)20
- 4.French (incl. Cajun, Haitian)10
- 5.Other Indo-European6
Economy
Cost of Living Index
—
Not yet cached
Top Industries
- 1.Educational Services, & Health Care & Social Assistance1,478
- 2.Retail Trade (Group)658
- 3.Manufacturing (Group)606
- 4.Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing & Hunting, & Mining566
- 5.Arts, Entertainment, & Recreation, & Accommodation & Food Services430
Top Occupations
- 1.Management, Business, Science, & Arts Occupations2,167
- 2.Sales & Office Occupations1,277
- 3.Service Occupations779
- 4.Natural Resources, Construction, & Maintenance Occupations776
- 5.Production, Transportation, & Material Moving Occupations717
Specialized Industries (Location Quotient)
- 1.Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing & Hunting, & Mining (LQ 6.32×)599
- 2.Transportation, Warehousing, & Utilities (LQ 1.27×)442
- 3.Educational Services & Health Care (LQ 1.18×)1,643
- 4.Retail Trade (LQ 1.10×)709
- 5.Public Administration (LQ 0.95×)268
Housing
Education
Workforce
Similar Locations
5 counties with comparable population, workforce, income, education, and cost of living. Click any to compare.
More on FDI Connect
Compare Lake County against other US geographies, save it to your shortlist, see active property listings on the interactive map, and unlock the full demographic dashboard.
Data: US Census Bureau American Community Survey, served via Data USA and the Census Bureau API. See each metric tile for the specific dataset.