The South Dakota Mental Health Workforce

Key findings

• South Dakota registers 313.1 active providers per 100,000 residents. That ranks 41 of 51 jurisdictions, below the national 433.5. #
• Fall River County has the state's highest registered density (741.6 per 100k); 32 of South Dakota's 66 counties have fewer than 3 registered providers. #
• Counselors are the largest group at 50.8% of South Dakota's registered workforce (US: 43.9%). #
• 177 providers with a South Dakota practice address first entered the NPI registry in 2025, versus 152 in 2019. These are registry entries, not licenses issued. #
• 59% of South Dakota providers share a registered practice location with six or more in-scope providers. #

Providers per 100,000 by county

Providers are allocated to counties from their practice ZIP code. For 32 counties with under 3 allocated providers or under 1,000 residents, we show the count but no per-100k rate, because numbers that small don't make a reliable rate. We also withhold the rate for one county (Yankton), where a single practice address holds at least half the providers registered there — typically a regional employer that enrols its whole clinical staff at one headquarters, which inflates that county and thins its neighbours. The same values appear in the table.

Provider-type mix vs the national picture

Each provider counts once under their primary taxonomy; the US share is printed beside each South Dakota figure for comparison.

When South Dakota's providers entered the registry

Active providers by NPI registry-entry year. Registry entry is not licensure. Clinicians typically register when they start billing, so this measures registrations, not the workforce itself. 2026 is a partial year.

Practice-location size

Share of South Dakota providers at single- vs multi-provider practice locations, by normalized practice address. This is a proxy; see the limitations below.

CE requirements for South Dakota clinicians