Registered Nurse salary in South Dakota

Official occupation: 29-1141 Registered Nurses · Reference period May 2025 · Data updated · Confidence 95/100

In South Dakota, the median registered nurse earns $78,060 a year, 20% below the United States median of $97,550.

Only 2 of the 51 states with a published figure pay less.

Pay is relatively compressed, with the 10th percentile at $54,040 and the 90th at $98,220 (a ratio of 1.8).

South Dakota has 14,710 of these jobs, a location quotient of 1.48: the role is 48% more concentrated here than nationally.

For context, the median across all occupations in South Dakota is $47,080, so this role pays 1.7 times the local typical wage.

Published figures

Published and derived pay figures
MeasureSouth DakotaNational
Median annual pay Observed$78,060United States: $97,550
Mean annual pay Observed$77,140United States: $101,420
10th percentile Observed$54,040United States: $68,940
25th percentile Observed$65,070United States: $80,330
75th percentile Observed$84,280United States: $112,350
90th percentile Observed$98,220United States: $137,470
Median hourly pay Observed$37.53United States: $46.90
Employment (jobs) Observed14,710
Jobs per 1,000 employees Observed32.17
Location quotient Observed1.48
Difference from United States median ($97,550) Derived−20%
Rank among 51 states Derived49
Ratio to South Dakota all-occupation median ($47,080) Derived1.66×
90th / 10th percentile ratio Derived1.82

Nearby in the ranking

  1. 47. Arkansas$78,940
  2. 48. Iowa$78,630
  3. 49. South Dakota$78,060
  4. 50. Mississippi$77,090
  5. 51. Alabama$77,080

Largest cities in South Dakota: Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Aberdeen, Brookings, Watertown (GeoNames). Figures are for the whole state, not individual cities.

More pay data

Source, method and data quality

  • Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 (Public domain (U.S. Government work)). Reference period: May 2025. Updates: Yearly (spring release).
  • Observed figures are copied from the published table without adjustment. Derived figures (rankings, ratios and differences) are calculated by us from those observed figures. No figure on this page is modeled or estimated.
  • Relative standard error (PRSE) published per estimate.
  • Confidence score: 95/100. Based on the published sampling error and job count. We only publish region pages scoring 60 or more that have at least 6 observed figures.
  • Place hierarchy from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Data last updated: .
  • Full method: methodology.