Sex imbalance in South Dakota, Upper Midwest grows

Fifteen years ago, there was parity between men and women

Photo by Rebecca Ritchie on Unsplash

South Dakota is increasingly a man’s world.

The state continues a trend of moving in the direction of having more males than females, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau released this month. Where the male/female composition was equal 15 years ago, the population in the bureau’s latest five-year survey was 50.7 percent male to 49.3 percent female.

Weiwei Zhang

While that may not seem like a stark disparity, it means there are about 12,600 more males in South Dakota. State Demographer Weiwei Zhang said in an email to The Dakota Scout that the difference in sexes is “statistically significant.”