Life Skills and Money Education in Union County, South Dakota

About 17,402 people live in Union County, South Dakota, making it among the larger counties in South Dakota, ranking 13th of 66 by population. Since 2020 it has added residents, rising 3.2% from 16,857 to 17,402. The median age is 40.4.

Among adults 25 and older in Union County, 36.5% hold a bachelor's degree or higher. That runs 16.2 points above the South Dakota average of 20.3%. Flip that figure and it describes 63.5% of the 11,663 adults 25 and over counted in the 2019–2023 ACS, about 7,406 people whose money skills came from somewhere other than a university.

Median household income is $84,137. That is $21,968 above the South Dakota median. About 7.3% of residents live below the poverty line. The median home is valued at $269,500 — about 3.2× the median household income, a ratio that makes the arithmetic of a mortgage worth understanding before signing one.

Union County by the numbers

Measure	Value
Population (2024)	17,402
Change since 2020	+3.2%
Median household income	$84,137
Adults 25+ with a bachelor’s degree	36.5%
Adults 25+ with a high school diploma	94.9%
Median age	40.4
Poverty rate	7.3%
Unemployment rate	3.5%
Median home value	$269,500
Land area	460.757 sq mi
Population density	38 / 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 Union County, whatever they know about money they picked up somewhere other than a classroom.

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

Where to start in Union County

Start with the money that moves every month

For most households in Union County, the fastest gain is not an investing strategy — it is seeing the recurring outflows clearly, knowing what a credit score actually responds to, and understanding which line items on a payslip are negotiable.

Questions people ask about Union County

Do high school students in Union 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 Union County, South Dakota have a college degree?

36.5% 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 63.5% are managing their finances without one.

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

$84,137, per the Census Bureau's 2019–2023 American Community Survey.

Where can adults in Union 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.