South Dakota Population Growth Fastest in Midwest

The Census Bureau's "Population Distribution and Change: 2000 to 2010" brief offers some nummy numerical nuggets:

1. South Dakota's 7.9% population growth during the first decade of this millennium was the highest growth rate among all Midwestern states. Minnesota had been the fastest Midwest grower for the three preceding decades; from 2000 to 2010, Minnesota's population grew 7.8%.
2. In the last ten years, South Dakota added 59,336 people. Minnesota added 384,446.
3. We're still behind the national population growth rate of 9.7%.
4. That national growth rate is about what it was during the 1980s (9.8%) and lower than in any other decade of the past century except for the 1930s, when the national population grew 7.3%.
5. 83.7% of Americans live in 336 metropolitan areas. 10.0% live in 576 "micropolitan" areas (towns with between 10,000 and 49,999 inhabitants). In other words, America is 93.7% city folk. We happy 6.3% rural Americans are a smaller minority than Hispanics or blacks.
6. Another slice of those urban-rural numbers: from 2000 to 2010, big-city population grew 10.8%. Rural population grew 1.8%.
7. I showed you a county population growth map for South Dakota last year; here's a nationwide map showing population growth and decline by county:

There are a lot of routes you could drive from the Canadian border to Oklahoma that would take you through nothing but dying counties. South Dakota's population growth may be the best in region, but we still have a lot of places losing people.