No more than two off-sale licenses issued pursuant to subdivisions 35-4-2(3) and (5) may be issued under this chapter to operate in a municipality of one thousand or less and not exceeding one license for every additional fifteen hundred of population or fraction thereof. The number of off-sale licenses may not be less than the total number of licenses allowable as of July 1, 1981, and that have never been revoked or not reissued.

For the purposes of this section, population is equal to the population estimates published by the United States Census Bureau for each even-numbered year, except for the decennial year. For a decennial year, population is equal to the amount determined by the decennial federal census. No license issued pursuant to this section that exceeds the number of licenses that would have been issued upon the decennial federal census may be denied or revoked solely by reason that the license issued exceeds the number of licenses authorized by the decennial federal census.

Source: SDC 1939, § 5.0204 (5); SL 1959, ch 6; SL 1971, ch 211, § 46; SL 1982, ch 271, § 3; SL 1987, ch 261, § 18; SL 1993, ch 266; SL 2010, ch 180, § 26; SL 2018, ch 213, § 56; SL 2022, ch 141, § 2.