How long does mail take from South Dakota to each state?
The map shades each state by the number of days USPS most often gives a First Class letter from South Dakota, and the table under it gives the usual range for every state, so you can read off a trip like South Dakota to California at a glance.
| Trip | Usually | Most often | Within 3 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Within South Dakota | 2 to 5 days | 4 days | 30 percent |
| South Dakota to Alabama | 4 to 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Alaska | 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Arizona | 4 to 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Arkansas | 4 to 5 days | 4 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to California | 4 to 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Colorado | 3 to 4 days | 4 days | 23 percent |
| South Dakota to Connecticut | 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Delaware | 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Washington, DC | 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Florida | 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Georgia | 4 to 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Hawaii | 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Idaho | 4 to 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Illinois | 4 days | 4 days | 0.7 percent |
| South Dakota to Indiana | 4 to 5 days | 4 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Iowa | 3 to 4 days | 4 days | 44 percent |
| South Dakota to Kansas | 3 to 4 days | 4 days | 25 percent |
| South Dakota to Kentucky | 4 to 5 days | 4 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Louisiana | 4 to 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Maine | 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Maryland | 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Massachusetts | 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Michigan | 4 to 5 days | 4 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Minnesota | 3 to 4 days | 4 days | 25 percent |
| South Dakota to Mississippi | 4 to 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Missouri | 3 to 4 days | 4 days | 12 percent |
| South Dakota to Montana | 4 to 5 days | 4 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Nebraska | 3 to 4 days | 4 days | 42 percent |
| South Dakota to Nevada | 4 to 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to New Hampshire | 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to New Jersey | 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to New Mexico | 4 to 5 days | 4 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to New York | 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to North Carolina | 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to North Dakota | 3 to 5 days | 4 days | 32 percent |
| South Dakota to Ohio | 4 to 5 days | 4 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Oklahoma | 4 days | 4 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Oregon | 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Pennsylvania | 4 to 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Rhode Island | 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to South Carolina | 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Tennessee | 4 to 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Texas | 4 to 5 days | 4 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Utah | 4 to 5 days | 4 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Vermont | 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Virginia | 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Washington | 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to West Virginia | 5 days | 5 days | 0 percent |
| South Dakota to Wisconsin | 4 days | 4 days | 2 percent |
| South Dakota to Wyoming | 3 to 5 days | 4 days | 19 percent |
How long does a letter take within South Dakota?
USPS's directory gives 2 days to 16 percent of the letters that start and end in South Dakota, 3 days to 14 percent, 4 days to 55 percent and 5 days to 15 percent. About 34 percent of the people in South Dakota live in ZIP codes whose letters get a day more than the rest of their 3 digit ZIP area, which is the 2025 rule for post offices more than 50 miles' drive from the plant that sorts their mail. If you mail from one of those towns, expect the slower end of each range on this page.
Which states get mail from South Dakota fastest?
No other state usually gets a letter from South Dakota within 3 days. The quickest are Iowa and Nebraska, where most letters get 4 days.
Which states take the longest from South Dakota?
USPS gives 5 days to most letters from South Dakota going to 30 states, including California and Florida. A letter on one of these trips that goes out with Monday's pickup is due on Saturday, or a day later when a holiday falls in the week.
How much of the country is within 3 days of South Dakota?
If you sent one letter from South Dakota to every person in the country, South Dakota included, USPS would give 2 percent of them a standard of 3 days or less. That ranks South Dakota 48th of the 50 states and DC, and the state in the middle of that list is at 22 percent.
How do I find the exact days for one letter?
Each range on this page covers many ZIP codes, and one letter has a single number. For example, USPS gives a letter from ZIP 57106 in South Dakota to ZIP 92336 in California 5 days. Our delivery time tool shows that number for any two ZIP codes and counts it out on the calendar, skipping Sundays and holidays.
How were these days worked out?
The days come from USPS's own service standard directory for First Class Mail, effective October 1, 2026, which we download from USPS's Service Standards Files API. It gives the days from every 3 digit ZIP area to every other, plus the 5 digit ZIP codes whose letters get a different number. For South Dakota we took each of its 374 populated ZIP codes as a starting point and each 3 digit ZIP area of the destination state as an end point, and weighted every pair by the people who live at both ends, using the Census Bureau's 2023 population counts. "Usually" is the range that covers the middle 8 of every 10 letters, and "most often" is the single most common number.
A service standard is USPS's target for a stamped letter mailed before the day's last pickup, and First Class Mail has no delivery guarantee. Sundays and the 11 federal holidays USPS observes don't count as delivery days.
Sources
- USPS, Service Standards Files API, "3D Base Service Standard Directory" and "Supplemental Service Standard Directory FCM", effective October 1, 2026, downloaded October 21, 2026: developers.usps.com
- Code of Federal Regulations, 39 CFR 121.1, First Class Mail service standards: ecfr.gov
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2023 5 year estimates, table B01003, population by ZIP Code Tabulation Area: data.census.gov
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Area to county relationship file: census.gov
- USPS Service Standards API, spot checks on October 21, 2026 that matched the directory: ZIP 77494 to 34787, 3 days; ZIP 92336 to 11368, 5 days; ZIP 11368 to 92336, 5 days; ZIP 60629 to 60629, 2 days; ZIP 59001 to 59901, 4 days; ZIP 590 to 59901, 3 days