Life Skills and Money Education in Brookings County, South Dakota

Brookings County, South Dakota is home to about 36,359 people, the 5th-largest of 66 counties in South Dakota. Since 2020 it has added residents, rising 5.9% from 34,349 to 36,359. At a median age of 28, much of the population is still early in the decisions — first lease, first card, first paycheck deduction — that set financial habits for decades.

Among adults 25 and older in Brookings County, 44% hold a bachelor's degree or higher. That runs 23.7 points above the South Dakota average of 20.3%. Flip that figure and it describes 56% of the 19,051 adults 25 and over counted in the 2019–2023 ACS, about 10,669 people whose money skills came from somewhere other than a university.

Median household income is $67,341. That is $5,172 above the South Dakota median. About 12.8% of residents live below the poverty line. The median home is valued at $246,300 — about 3.7× the median household income, a ratio that makes the arithmetic of a mortgage worth understanding before signing one.

Brookings County by the numbers

Measure	Value
Population (2024)	36,359
Change since 2020	+5.9%
Median household income	$67,341
Adults 25+ with a bachelor’s degree	44%
Adults 25+ with a high school diploma	96.7%
Median age	28
Poverty rate	12.8%
Unemployment rate	3.6%
Median home value	$246,300
Land area	792.217 sq mi
Population density	46 / sq mi

What South Dakota teaches — and to whom

South Dakota lets students satisfy the requirement with either Personal Finance or Economics. Which means for most residents of Brookings County, whatever they know about money they picked up somewhere other than a classroom.

LearnLife organises this the way the decisions actually arrive: Money — budgeting, credit, debt and taxes — the mechanics nobody is formally taught; Legal literacy — leases, contracts, employment rights and what a signature actually commits you to; Emotional regulation — the self-management that decides whether the other skills ever get used.

Where to start in Brookings County

Get the first-decade decisions right

A median age of 28 means a large share of Brookings County is making decisions with thirty-year consequences: the first credit card, the first lease, whether to take the employer match. These are cheap to get right now and expensive to unwind later.

Questions people ask about Brookings County

Do high school students in Brookings County, South Dakota have to take a personal finance class?

No. South Dakota sets no statewide requirement that students complete personal finance before graduating.

How many adults in Brookings County, South Dakota have a college degree?

44% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor's degree or higher, based on the Census Bureau's 2019–2023 American Community Survey. The remaining 56% are managing their finances without one.

What is the median household income in Brookings County, South Dakota?

$67,341, per the Census Bureau's 2019–2023 American Community Survey.

Where can adults in Brookings County, South Dakota learn personal finance?

Graduation requirements only ever reach people still in school. For adults, LearnLife covers the same ground on demand — money, legal literacy and the self-management that decides whether either gets used.

Start with whichever one is costing you money right now.

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Population and demographic figures: U.S. Census Bureau — 2024 Gazetteer, Vintage 2024 Population Estimates, and the American Community Survey 2019–2023 5-year estimates. Graduation-requirement status: NGPF Live U.S. Dashboard, read 2026-09-14. Figures marked as unavailable are suppressed by the Census Bureau for small populations.