For the first time, the Rapid City metropolitan area has reached an estimated 120,000 population, a figure that doesn't surprise Marcia Elkins, Rapid City's growth management director.

The new figures, part of an annual report by the U.S. Census Bureau, also showed that the Sioux Falls area population grew by an estimated 2.5 percent, making it the fastest growing area in the Midwest.

The Rapid City metropolitan statistical area, which includes Pennington and Meade counties, grew by an estimated 1,155 residents, a 1 percent increase from July 2006 to July 2007, according to the Census Bureau. The area has added 7,268 residents since 2000 for a 6.4 percent population increase.

"We absolutely know that Rapid City is a growing community, and those numbers document what we've been seeing here," Elkins said in an interview Wednesday afternoon.

In 2007, Rapid City issued permits for 545 housing units, up from 478 in 2006.

All building permits totaled 3,185 last year, a 12.9 percent increase over 2006, Elkins said.

This year has started off strong, too, Elkins said.

For the first two months of 2008, the value of new construction has increased 138 percent, and the fees collected for building permits were up 99.8 percent over the same period of 2007.

"We seem to have a steady growth pattern here," Elkins said.

Elkins said the steady growth is preferable to places such as Phoenix, which have seen 25 to 30 percent annual growth in the past few years but now have many homes sitting empty.

The challenge of steady growth is providing infrastructure, such as streets, water and sewer, and services, such as police and fire protection, Elkins said.

"But it's a great problem to have a growing community when so many communities across South Dakota are losing population," she said.

Outside of Rapid City, residential and commercial development is continuing, even if it has leveled out some from previous years, according to Richard Rieck, Pennington County deputy director of equalization.

"It's very steady," Rieck said in a recent interview. "It certainly hasn't stopped."

In Meade County, sales of homes and land have slowed down from the big spikes of a few years ago, county equalization director Kirk Chaffee said.

But, Chaffee said, "Meade County is still growing - just not as fast as earlier this decade."

The Spearfish area, designated as a micropolitan statistical area, has added 363 residents, for a 1.6 increase, to 23,347 residents, according to the Census Bureau report.

The report estimated that the Sioux Falls metropolitan area, which includes Minnehaha, Lincoln, McCook and Turner counties, added 5,535 residents during the one-year period to boost its population to 227,171. Southeastern South Dakota has increased its population by more than 20 percent since 2000, by adding 38,861 residents.

Sioux Falls' growth makes it a standout in the Midwest. It ranked as the 36th fastest growing metropolitan area in the country.

The Huron area, which according to the Census Bureau has lost residents every year since 2000, posted its first year of growth, adding 200 residents for a 1.3 percent increase, to 15,669.

Officials in Huron said the city has added more than 2,000 new jobs over the past two years. Leading the way in job growth is Dakota Provisions, a turkey plant owned by 44 Hutterite colonies in the Dakotas and Minnesota that opened about two years ago.

The only metropolitan or micropolitan statistical areas in South Dakota to post drops were Yankton and Mitchell, but their combined loss was only 21 residents.

The Yankton area's population decreased by 5 to 21,645, and the Mitchell area lost 16 residents for a population of 22,641, according to the bureau.

South Dakota's population is 796,214, according to the most recent Census Bureau estimate.

Following is a searchable database of the nation's fastest growing cities and metro areas.