Does South Dakota lead the nation in cattle per capita?

South Dakota’s cattle population outnumbers the state’s human residents by roughly a 4-to-1 margin, the highest ratio in the country.

As of January 2023, the state had 3.6 million head of cattle — 4% of the nation’s inventory. With a human population of roughly 920,000, that puts the cattle-to-people ratio at 3.9. Nebraska is second, followed by North Dakota and Wyoming. 

The number of cattle in the Rushmore State has trended downward the past decade. In 2018, South Dakota’s cattle-to-human ratio was 4.6-to-1. Nationally, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said that the country had 87.2 million head of cattle in 2024, the lowest amount since 1951. 

The USDA reported in July that beef production would drop 4% in 2025 and a further 2% in 2026, citing drought across the country as one of the factors.

That’s contributed to record-high beef prices: up 51% since 2020.