There is an excellent chance that you've heard of the twin cities of Sioux Falls and Sioux City. Both cities are located on the Great Plains and are only 80 miles apart along Interstate 29. While they share many similarities, their economies have developed in very different ways.
The city has evolved from a meat-packing town to a more diverse one. In fact, the city employs more people than Sioux Falls. Its employment rate has increased significantly since 2000, indicating that the city has a more diverse economy. Sioux Falls, on the other hand, has a higher concentration of real estate and finance industries. More than five percent of its population works in real estate.
In 1880, the arrival of railroads brought a new wave of settlers to the region. By 1873, the village had a population of 593 people. It was then granted a city charter in 1883. By the 1880s, the area underwent a major boom, doubling its population from a few thousand in 1840 to ten thousand by 1890. The growth slowed in the mid-1890s due to the grasshopper plague and the Depression. In the early 1960s, the city consolidated with the nearby city, South Sioux Falls, to increase its population to forty thousand.
The city is home to two schools, one of which serves a multicultural population. The majority of students in the district are white, while fourteen percent are Hispanic. The city's population is ethnically diverse and speaks 79 different languages. The most commonly spoken languages include English, Spanish, Nepali, Swahili, and Amharic.