South Dakota Ranks 3rd Worst Among All States in This Category

No matter which way you slice it, South Dakota continues to be a great place to call home. However, there are always areas in which our cities, towns, and wild places can be improved upon.

One report from 2021 by CNBC lists the Mount Rushmore state as needing some serious work in a troubling category: infastructure.

This is a broad-reaching term, which can be streched from roads and bridges to power grids and internet access.

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Per the article:

We rate the states on multiple components of their infrastructure, including roads and bridges, utilities, connectivity, sustainability, and sites available for development.

Joining South Dakota towards the bottom of the rankings include several states that battle rough winters. Here is the bottom 10 of the rankings:

10) West Virginia

9) Rhode Island

7t) Arkansas

7t) Montana

6) New Hampshire

5) Vermont

4) New Mexico

3) South Dakota

2) Alaska

1) Maine

The article gives some metrics and reasoning behind the low ranking for our great state:

The evolving definition of infrastructure chips away at the Mount Rushmore State’s performance. Roads are in good shape (though bridges need some work), and the drinking water and wastewater systems are in good shape. But South Dakota’s average internet speeds are the lowest in the continental United States at a sluggish 75 Mbps, according to BroadbandNow Research. The power grid is on the low end of the reliability scale, and there are limited sites available for development.

2021 Infrastructure score: 141 out of 375 points (Top States Grade: D-)

U.S. population within 500 miles: 23,122,610

Bridges in poor condition: 18%

Roads in unacceptable condition: 9%

Broadband access: 78.2%

Power outages per year: 4.9 hours

There you have it. There are clearly improvements to be made, but as the state population continues to rapidly increase, the need for better and more reliable infrastructure will surely follow in short order.

Source: CNBC.com