South Dakota Car Insurance Minimum Requirements

South Dakota requires at least 25/50/25 liability coverage. That is $25,000 for injuries to one person, $50,000 per accident and $25,000 for property damage.

Shorthand: 25/50/25
Those three numbers are only the liability layer. Every South Dakota policy must also carry uninsured motorist and underinsured motorist coverage, and neither can be rejected, so the real floor is 25/50/25 liability plus 25/50 UM plus 25/50 UIM. The liability figures have not moved since 1985. House Bill 1059 would have raised them to 50/100/50 in the 2026 session; the House Transportation Committee deferred it to the 41st legislative day on January 22, 2026, which in South Dakota is how a bill is killed.
Bodily injury — per person: $25,000
Bodily injury — per accident: $50,000
Property damage: $25,000
Uninsured / underinsured motorist: Both mandatory, at your bodily injury limits — neither can be rejected
South Dakota is one of the few states that mandates underinsured as well as uninsured motorist coverage. No policy on a vehicle registered or principally garaged here may be delivered unless it carries uninsured motorist coverage in limits equal to the policy's own bodily injury limits, and underinsured motorist coverage at a face amount equal to those same limits. Neither statute contains a rejection, waiver or written-election provision, so a named insured cannot sign the coverage away the way drivers in most states can. The insurer can be forced no higher than $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident unless the insured asks for more. Both coverages are bodily injury only — neither pays for damage to your car — and neither can be stacked: not your UM against your UIM, and not one vehicle's limits against another's.
Personal injury protection (PIP): Not required and not defined by statute
South Dakota never enacted a no-fault act. The only coverages the statutes compel are liability, uninsured motorist and underinsured motorist. Medical payments coverage is sold here but it is an ordinary contract option, not a statutory coverage, and there is no injury threshold to clear before suing. Any guide that prints a PIP figure for South Dakota has imported it from a no-fault state.

Property damage minimum — where South Dakota sits

South Dakota sets $25,000 — higher than 23 of the 51 jurisdictions on this site. The range runs from $5,000 to $50,000.

How South Dakota compares with every other state

What these numbers buy you

Those first two numbers are two different walls, and drivers regularly mistake them for one. $25,000 is the most the policy pays for any single person's injuries. $50,000 is the ceiling for everyone hurt in the same crash put together. Injure one person badly and $25,000 is all your insurer owes, however large the bill. Injure three people and they divide $50,000 between them. Anything a court awards above those lines is yours to pay, and it does not go away when the policy runs out.

The $25,000 of property damage cover is the figure drivers look at last and need first. It pays for what you hit — the other car, a guardrail, a storefront — and nothing else. Only 2 states on this site set a higher one. Whatever the repair or replacement actually costs above $25,000 is not covered by this policy, and the difference is a debt in your name rather than your insurer's.

None of this is what South Dakota drivers actually spend. The average premium written per insured vehicle here was $307 in 2023, 51st highest of 51 states and DC — and that average covers policies far above the legal floor, not the bare minimum on this page.

Carrying the minimum is legal, not safe. It is the line below which South Dakota will not let you drive — and the penalties for falling under it are on the driving uninsured page.

Common questions

Is uninsured motorist coverage required in South Dakota?

Both UM and UIM are mandatory, and neither can be signed away.

Is PIP required in South Dakota?

Not required and not defined by statute.

Is full coverage required in South Dakota?

No. Collision and comprehensive — the two coverages people usually mean by "full coverage" — are not part of what South Dakota law requires. A lender or leasing company will usually require them until the car is paid off.

Every statute cited for South Dakota

Why the rule looks like this

More on South Dakota

Checked against the primary sources above on September 30, 2026. If a figure here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it — what we have corrected so far is public.