South Dakota counties quiz

The 66 counties in the quiz

They’re the 66 counties of South Dakota, as counted by the US Census Bureau. The state capital, Pierre, is in Hughes County.

How to play

In Point mode we name a county and you tap it on the map; in Type mode one lights up and you type its name (accents don’t matter); and in Time trial you get 6 seconds per question. If you miss, we show you where it was, which way it lies and a hint drawn from the data: its size rank and its neighbors.

Each game has 10, 20 or all the questions, and at the end you can practice just the ones you missed. Your best score for each mode is saved in this browser only: neither we nor anyone else can see it, and there’s no sign-up.

The hardest ones

The smallest counties are the hardest, since they barely show on the map: Clay (412 sq mi), Douglas (432 sq mi), and Hanson (435 sq mi). Zoom in with the buttons or two fingers to tap them.

Tips to learn them

• The 11 counties bordering Nebraska trace that border on the map: Bennett, Bon Homme, Charles Mix, Clay, Fall River, Gregory, Oglala Lakota, Todd, Tripp, Union, and Yankton.
• Lyman has the most neighbors: it borders 9 counties. Once you place it, you have a landmark for many more.
• Minnehaha is the most populous (212,691 people in 2025) and, together with Pennington and Lincoln, is home to 43% of South Dakota’s people.

Playing in class

If you teach in South Dakota, start with your school’s county and its neighbors and add a few each day. Otherwise, it’s a good way to get to know the state before studying it.

With the Challenge your class link, everyone gets the same questions in the same order, with no accounts or passwords, and each student sees their own score, time and streak. To practice on paper, there’s a printable worksheet of the same map with an answer key.

List of all 66 counties

1. Aurora pop. 2,801
2. Beadle pop. 19,624
3. Bennett pop. 3,307
4. Bon Homme pop. 7,244
5. Brookings pop. 37,635
6. Brown pop. 37,561
7. Brule pop. 5,278
8. Buffalo pop. 1,802
9. Butte pop. 10,856
10. Campbell pop. 1,377
11. Charles Mix pop. 9,303
12. Clark pop. 4,031
13. Clay pop. 15,031
14. Codington pop. 29,562
15. Corson pop. 3,781
16. Custer pop. 9,431
17. Davison pop. 20,069
18. Day pop. 5,484
19. Deuel pop. 4,408
20. Dewey pop. 5,419
21. Douglas pop. 2,888
22. Edmunds pop. 4,022
23. Fall River pop. 7,467
24. Faulk pop. 2,178
25. Grant pop. 7,534
26. Gregory pop. 4,037
27. Haakon pop. 1,802
28. Hamlin pop. 6,900
29. Hand pop. 3,121
30. Hanson pop. 3,456
31. Harding pop. 1,331
32. Hughes pop. 17,570
33. Hutchinson pop. 7,413
34. Hyde pop. 1,191
35. Jackson pop. 2,666
36. Jerauld pop. 1,654
37. Jones pop. 913
38. Kingsbury pop. 5,284
39. Lake pop. 10,993
40. Lawrence pop. 29,459
41. Lincoln pop. 77,145
42. Lyman pop. 3,694
43. Marshall pop. 4,426
44. McCook pop. 5,964
45. McPherson pop. 2,347
46. Meade pop. 30,711
47. Mellette pop. 2,137
48. Miner pop. 2,281
49. Minnehaha pop. 212,691
50. Moody pop. 6,632
51. Oglala Lakota pop. 13,338
52. Pennington pop. 116,792
53. Perkins pop. 2,853
54. Potter pop. 2,377
55. Roberts pop. 10,255
56. Sanborn pop. 2,388
57. Spink pop. 6,155
58. Stanley pop. 3,018
59. Sully pop. 1,479
60. Todd pop. 8,863
61. Tripp pop. 5,708
62. Turner pop. 9,314
63. Union pop. 17,402
64. Walworth pop. 5,217
65. Yankton pop. 23,635
66. Ziebach pop. 2,389