Health professional shortage designations in South Dakota

The summary said South Dakota was short across the board and gave each discipline the same sentence.

Primary care has 99 designated IDs, 10.6 per 100,000 residents.

Dental health has 92, or 9.9 per 100,000.

Mental health has 65, or 7.0 per 100,000.

Mental health is smaller.

A campaign that funds the three files equally is a budget choice, not what the counts show.

The three files together hold 256 distinct IDs, 27.5 per 100,000 civilian residents.

The civilian population used here is 931,875.

Areas overlap, so do not add population out of the designation file.

An ID is not a job you failed to fill.

Each discipline

Ranked table

Swipe the table sideways. The same figures are in the blocks above.

Takeaways

• HRSA last touched the files on 2026-09-30, and withdrawn or proposed rows stay out of the count.
• On designations per resident, South Dakota ranks 3 of 51, which is a rate rank and not a vacancy rank.
• A single ID may hold several rural labels, so this table does not split rural and urban.
• Component rows that repeat an ID count once, and multiplying the slide by those pieces will inflate the file.

For recruiters

• When mental health is the open job, use 65 and 7.0 rather than the primary-care count.
• Say designation, not vacancy, when the number comes from this file.

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: HRSA Health Professional Shortage Area detail files (primary care, dental, mental health), 2026-09-30.

Related hiring pages

Methodology

Counts are distinct HPSA IDs with status Designated in the HRSA primary-care, dental, and mental-health detail files, last modified 2026-09-30. Component rows that repeat an ID are counted once. Withdrawn and proposed rows are excluded. Population is not summed from the HPSA file, because shortage areas overlap. The per-resident count uses Census civilian population on July 1, 2025, which is 931,875 in South Dakota, divided into the ID count per 100,000 residents. Rural-status fields are not added in this table, because one ID can carry more than one rural status. South Dakota has 256 distinct designated IDs across the three disciplines, which is 27.5 per 100,000 civilian residents. Areas are ordered by that per-resident count. South Dakota is 3 of 51.

Sources

• HRSA Health Professional Shortage Area detail files (primary care, dental, mental health) · 2026-09-30
• Census Bureau Population Estimates Program, civilian population by age and sex · July 1, 2025