Rapid City

City Commute Profile

Rapid City, SD

Where Rapid City’s 35,513 resident workers go each day — 74.5% work within the area; the top destination beyond it is Sioux Falls.

South DakotaLODES 2023 data
82
Commute Score

82 / 100

How short the typical commute is here, on an absolute 0–100 scale (higher is shorter). How it’s calculated.

Rapid City at a glance
Employed Residents
35,513
Fewer than the city’s total population
Median home–work distance
19.6mi
Straight-line, not road distance
Work Locally
74.5%
Share working within the area
Work from home
10.0%
Residents who work from home (ACS)
Top destination outside city
Sioux Falls
Excludes local — most work in-city

These figures are for Rapid City proper — the Census place within its city limits — not the surrounding metro area. Metro-wide totals you’ll see elsewhere are larger because they bundle in neighboring cities and suburbs.

How Rapid City commutes

Every dot is a worker moving between home and job. Trace where the area pulls people in from — and where its residents head each day.

Rapid City

35,513 commutes, one dot at a time

Rapid City

Where 35,513 workers commute

Each dot ≈ 75 workers

Where residents work

Top destinations for people who live in Rapid City, by worker count.

1Rapid City0.0 mi26,460
2Sioux Falls326.8 mi1,255
3Box Elder8.2 mi670
4Spearfish42.0 mi460
5Rapid Valley4.7 mi252
6Sturgis27.1 mi200
7Pierre145.0 mi176
8Deadwood32.5 mi168

Who commutes in

Top origin places for workers who travel into Rapid City.

1Rapid City0.0 mi26,460
2Rapid Valley4.7 mi3,486
3Box Elder8.2 mi3,128
4Blackhawk6.9 mi948
5Summerset9.3 mi932
6Sioux Falls326.8 mi931
7Spearfish42.0 mi692
8Sturgis27.1 mi690

Top industries

The sectors that employ Rapid City’s workforce. Each bar is scaled to that sector’s share of all local jobs — the top sectors shown don’t add up to 100%.

Bar length = each sector’s share of all local jobs (0–100%)
HCHealth Care and Social Assistance21.7%
RTRetail Trade15.4%
AFAccommodation and Food Services12.1%
COConstruction6.7%
EDEducational Services5.8%
PAPublic Administration5.1%
OSOther Services (except Public Administration)4.5%
FIFinance and Insurance4.4%
PTProfessional, Scientific, and Technical Services4.3%

Rapid City city profile

Who lives in Rapid City — population, housing, and income, from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Population
77,946
Median age
39.1yrs
Median household income
$70,870
Median home value
$299,400
Median gross rent
$1,109/mo
Bachelor’s degree or higher
37.0%
Poverty rate
12.5%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 2024 5-Year Estimates. Values shown as “—” are suppressed or unavailable for this place.

Connectivity

Internet options for Rapid City

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