State scorecard
South Dakota in the US Political Rank
Every place South Dakota holds across our state rankings, in one scorecard. Economy, taxes, education, crime, healthcare, and more, each measured the same way for all 50 states and each linked to the full cited ranking.
#4
of 50 on States Ranked by Total Tax Burden
#48
of 50 on States Ranked by Violent Crime Rate
54.8%
Governor Larry Rhoden performance score, rank 12 of 50
10
state rankings that score South Dakota
Governor
South Dakota's governor, Larry Rhoden (Republican), holds performance rank 12 of 50 at 54.8% this week in the Governor Performance Rankings, scored on 263 metrics and updated every Monday.
| Ranking | South Dakota's place | Score |
|---|---|---|
| States Ranked by Total Tax BurdenNo individual or corporate income tax, one of only two states that forgo both, and a top-3 finish on the 2026 State Tax Competitiveness Index (Tax Foundation, 2026). | #4 of 50 | 90.6 |
| States Ranked by Fiscal Health: Reserves, Pensions, and What They OwePensions funded at 100 percent (Equable Institute, 2025). South Dakota runs one of the country's leanest state governments and carries essentially no structural pension gap. | #5 of 20 | 91.0 |
| States Ranked by Business Climate: What the Major Raters Agree OnSecond-best tax structure in America, with no individual or corporate income tax (Tax Foundation, 2026). CNBC ranks it mid-pack on workforce depth, the classic small-state trade-off (CNBC, 2025). | #10 of 25 | 86.8 |
| Ranking the 50 State Economies of 2026The lowest unemployment rate in America at 2.1 percent in May 2026 (BLS, 2026), but the worst first quarter 2026 GDP print in the country at minus 1.6 percent, driven by agriculture (BEA, 2026). A tight labor market attached to a farm-cycle economy. | #15 of 50 | 79.8 |
| States Ranked by Health Care OutcomesAbove-average life expectancy with a higher-than-average uninsured rate until its 2023 Medicaid expansion took effect (CDC NCHS, 2023; Census ACS, 2023). | #29 of 50 | 74.0 |
| Voting With Their Feet: States Ranked by Migration and Population GrowthPositive to balanced net domestic migration in the Vintage 2025 estimates (Census Bureau, 2025), backed by the lowest unemployment rate in America at 2.1 percent (BLS, 2026). | #31 of 50 | 53.0 |
| States Ranked by K-12 Education OutcomesNear the national average with an above-average graduation rate (NCES, NAEP 2024; NCES ACGR). | #31 of 50 | 75.1 |
| States Ranked by Dependence on Federal MoneyNo state income tax and heavy federal land and tribal spending keep federal money large relative to locally raised revenue (Rockefeller Institute, 2025). | #31 of 50 | 63.0 |
| States Ranked by Infrastructure Condition16.9 percent of its bridges rated structurally deficient in the Reason Foundation's tabulation of 2021 federal data, among the worst rates in the nation (Reason Foundation, 28th Annual Highway Report). | #42 of 25 | 57.8 |
| States Ranked by Violent Crime Rate362.3 per 100,000 with a murder rate of 4.7, both near national levels, ranking here after adjustment for reporting coverage rather than raw rate (FBI, 2024). | #48 of 50 | 362.3 |
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