The Black Hills Pioneer posts a list of the ten best counties in South Dakota for incoming investment, based on an index created by New York-based Smart Asset that calculates “equally weighted categories of GDP growth, business growth, new building permits and municipal bonds per capita”:
- Hanson
- Custer
- McCook
- Union
- Butte
- Lake
- Aurora
- Minnehaha
- Jerauld
- Kingsbury
The Spearfish paper got its numbers from the Black Hills Knowledge Network, which offers detailed investment numbers for every county in this November 19 article. Hanson County’s top ranking came not from Stace Nelson adding a second pig to the farm but from leading the state “for the amount of municipal bonds taken out per capita in the last five years — $107,876.”
Custer County had the highest rate of building permits, 24.9 per 1,000 homes. Mellette had the strongest business growth, 17.4%. Minnehaha had the highest GDP growth, $665 million, but notice that Smart Asset switches here from a percentage measure to raw dollars. Smart Asset does not give figures on per-capita GDP growth, which might better illustrate which counties have some secret economic development sauce. If you’re looking for per capita income, the best counties in South Dakota are Union, Lincoln, Miner, Stanley, and Hughes, the only five South Dakota counties that rank in the top 10% of counties for per-capita income nationwide.
Really? I think it was Stacey. Lol. Wasn’t me
Does that mean Hanson county, where Mr. Nelson abides, has the highest debt per citizen as well?
Custer county’s building permits is probably skewed because of the compound near Pringle getting an inordinate number of permits.