Insights / Older residents and healthcare jobs / South Dakota
Older residents and healthcare jobs in South Dakota
South Dakota's thin bench next to older residents is home health aides, not a giant aide workforce.
A recruiter imported a coastal aide story into a South Dakota staffing plan and then could not find the headcount.
The state has 181,082 residents age 65 and over. Registered nurses number 14,710, which is 81.23 nurses for every 1,000 of those residents. That is the row this page sorts on. It is employment, not a shortage rate and not a stack of applications.
Home health and personal care aides are the small group: 4,210 jobs, 23.25 for every 1,000 older residents. If the plan assumed aides would outnumber nurses the way they do in some eastern markets, the plan has the bench backwards. Staff the req that is open, and do not borrow another state's shape.
Ranked table
| Rank | Occupation | State jobs | Residents age 65 and over | Jobs per 1,000 residents age 65 and over |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Registered Nurses | 14,710 | 181,082 | 81.23 |
| 2 | Nursing Assistants | 6,860 | 181,082 | 37.88 |
| 3 | Home Health and Personal Care Aides | 4,210 | 181,082 | 23.25 |
Takeaways
- Nursing assistants number 6,860, or 37.88 on that same per-resident measure, between the nurses and the aides.
- The all-age civilian count in this file is 931,875. Do not drop that into the denominator.
- South Dakota is 2 of 51 on the registered-nurse measure. The rank is not an aide rank.
- Both the job counts and the resident count are government tallies for 2025. Neither one is applicants.
For recruiters
- When aides are the open job, lead with 4,210 employed, not with the nurse rank.
- Say what the per-resident figure is counting before anyone calls it a shortage.
FAQ
- Are these posted wages or open jobs?
- No. The table is a government survey or a designation file.
- What should a recruiter do first?
- Follow the recruiter note on this page.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
Related hiring pages
Methodology
Jobs are OEWS May 2025 state employment for registered nurses, nursing assistants, and home health and personal care aides. Residents are the Census Population Estimates Program civilian population age 65 and over on July 1, 2025, Vintage 2025. This is not the ACS tabulation; the ACS API was not used. Jobs per 1,000 residents equals jobs times 1,000 divided by that resident count. It is not a shortage rate and it is not a count of job listings. Areas are ordered by registered-nurse jobs per 1,000 residents age 65 and over. South Dakota is 2 of 51. Total civilian population in the same file is 931,875.
Sources
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics · May 2025
- Census Bureau Population Estimates Program, civilian population by age and sex · July 1, 2025
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