South Dakota was named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes. It is situated in the North Central region of the U.S. and is part of the Great Plains.
The state was admitted into the union on November 2, 1889, along with North Dakota. It is believed that President Benjamin Harrison shuffled the official papers before he signed them, preventing anyone from knowing which became a state first.
The population of South Dakota in 2020 was 886,667, making it the 6th least populated state in the country. The most inhabited counties are Minnehaha County, Pennington County, Lincoln County, Brown County, and Brookings County.
South Dakota’s capital city is Pierre, while the most populous city is Sioux Falls—with 196,528 residents.
The State Department of Health in Pierre maintains vital records for South Dakota. The office has birth, death, marriage, and divorce records starting from July 1905.