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Welcome to Pierre ...

The city of Pierre is located in Hughes County<1>. It is the County Seat and the capital of South Dakota.

Pierre was established in 1880.

When the people of Pierre refer to themselves (known as a demonym), they frequently use Pierrite<2>

From the  Census Estimates for 2019, Pierre has a population of 13,843 people<3> (see below for details).

The community of Pierre is 1,690 feet [515 m] above sea level.<4>.

Time Zone: Pierre lies in the Central Time Zone (CST/CDT) and observes daylight saving time

Note: If you travel west from Pierre, you will leave Central Time and cross into the Mountain Time Zone (MST/MDT).

Area Code for Pierre: 605

Population Details ...

Taken from the 2019 Census Estimates, Pierre had an population of 13,843 people. This is an increase of 1.44% since the 2010 Census (or a decrease of 0.24% since the 2000 Census).

At the time of the 2010 Census, Pierre had a population of 13,646 people (which is 79.93% of the total population of Hughes County). This makes Pierre the county's most populous community.

The population of Pierre represents 1.68% of the population of South Dakota (which has 814,180 people), making it the state's 8th most populous community.

With a 2010 count of 13,646 people, the population of Pierre decreased 1.66% from the 2000 Census (with a count of 13,876 people).

More information can be found on the Census Page for Pierre.

Communities Also Named Pierre ...

Using our Gazetteer, we found another community named Pierre - it's located in Maine.

For more information, see our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Pierre.

Websites for Pierre ...

Official Website: www.ci.pierre.sd.us/

Communities near Pierre ...

We have created a list of 10 communities that are near Pierre.

  • Oahe
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Oahe have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oahe
    • Oahe is located in Hughes County
    • Estimated population in 2014: 474 people
  • Blunt
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
  • Teton
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Teton have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Teton
    • Teton is located in Stanley County
    • Estimated population in 2014: 59 people
  • Alto
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alto
    • Alto is located in Hughes County
  • Rousseau
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rousseau have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rousseau
    • Rousseau is located in Hughes County
  • Canning
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Canning have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Canning
    • Canning is located in Hughes County
  • Okobojo
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Okobojo. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<7>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Okobojo
    • Okobojo is located in Sully County
  • Onida
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Harrold
    (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Harrold have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harrold
    • Harrold is located in Hughes County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 128 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Harrold <6>
  • Vivian
    (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Vivian have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vivian
    • Vivian is located in Lyman County
    • Estimated population in 2014: 149 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Vivian <6>

To Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

We have a couple of sections for those tracing their genealogy.

We created a list of cemeteries that are in the area around Pierre. Our list includes the location of those cemeteries and we provide an overhead view. See our Cemetery List for Pierre.

Using the information from an 1895 Atlas, we've created a list of communities that were in the area of Pierre. Our list includes information such as whether the 1895 community had a post office or railroad service. See our List of 1890's Communities around Pierre.

We also have a detailed list of newspapers that have been published in the area around Pierre. Our list includes 53 papers. See our Newspapers Page for Pierre.

TripAdvisor Tourism Pages for Pierre ...

Looking for more information about Pierre? A wonderful source is the TripAdvisor website. We always start with the TripAdvisor Tourism page, where you can read an overview with links that will help you find lodging, restaurants and attractions.

In addition to the Tourism page for Pierre, there are neighboring communities that also have Tourism pages. More information about those communities can be found on our TripAdvisor Page for Pierre.

Adding Pierre to Our Gazetteer ...

We originally found mention of Pierre in both the FIPS-55 and the GNIS. For more information, see the FIPS and GNIS Codes sections on our Miscellaneous Page.

From our notes, the earliest published mention we've found for Pierre was in the document titled List of Post Offices from Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<8>

X2X - From that list, the Pierre post office opened in 1880.

We also found Pierre on a map titled Rand McNally Map of South Dakota (1937).

For more details, see References and Mentions for Pierre.

The official website for Pierre: www.ci.pierre.sd.us/

The official website for State of South Dakota: https://www.sd.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>If you're interested in how the shape of South Dakota's counties, including Hughes, have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
<2>A demonym is the name for a resident of a community which is usually derived from (or is related to) the name of that community. In other words, it's how the residents of Pierre refer to themselves. It's important to note that there aren't any rules for taking a city's name and turning it into a demonym. A demonym is informal and while the majority of Pierre may use one name, keep in mind that others may use something different.
<3>Population counts have been provided by the U.S. Census Bureau. For more detail, please visit our Census Page for Pierre.
<4>The elevation is an estimate for the area around Pierre - it will be higher in some places and lower in others.
<5>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<6>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<7>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<8>A copy of their list with background information can be found at:

      https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025