Gross Domestic Product

Despite a sluggish economy across the nation, the total value of goods and services produced in the Rapid City metropolitan region grew by an estimated 2.6 percent in 2010. This growth followed a 0.6 percentage decline in 2009 (based on revised figures from the Bureau of Economic Analysis). With this growth, the Rapid City metropolitan area ranked 133rd among the fastest-growing urban economies in the nation. Regionally, Rapid City surpassed Sioux Falls (up 2.3 percent), Billings (up 0.4 percent) and Casper (down 3.8 percent). Only Bismarck (which was up 5.1 percent), showed stronger growth.

In 2009, the BEA reported that the Rapid City metropolitan region's economy was led by financial services (up 3.1 percent), government (up 1.0 percent) and trade (up 0.5 percent) fueled the relative success of the metropolitan area’s businesses and government institutions. Meanwhile, all other sectors of the economy declined in the face of the national recession. The sharpest decreases were in transportation and utilities (down 0.9 percent) and durable goods manufacturing (down 0.5 percent), but even these decreases were relatively mild compared to the national trend.

For access to the September 13, 2011 data release from Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce, click here.  To compare this release to the February, 2011 release of 2009 data, click here. To find gross domestic product data for all metropolitan areas in the United States for 2007-2010, see this October, 2011 report from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.