Facts about Iowa

History | Symbols | Interesting Facts | Famous People

Demographics
Statehood:  December 28, 1846, the 29th state

Capital:  Des Moines

Total Area:  26th among states, 145,754 sq km (56,276 sq mi)

Water Area:  1,039 sq km (401 sq mi)

Highest Point:  Sec. 29, T100N, R41W, Osceola County, 509 m (1670 ft)

Total Population:  30th among states
2010 census -  3,046,355

Population Density in 2010:  54.5 people per sq mi

Distribution in 2000: 61.1% Urban, 38.9% Rural

Economy:  
 Gross State Product - $147.2 billion (2010)
Personal income per Capita - $36,751 (2009)

Largest cities in 2010: 
 Des Moines:  203,433
Cedar Rapids:  126,326
Davenport:  101,335

  • Effigy Mounds National Monument in northeastern Iowa preserves prehistoric mounds constructed in the outline of mammals, birds, and reptiles.
     

  • In Spillville, near Decorah, is the house where the famous Czech composer Antonín Dvorák lived in the summer of 1893 during his visit to America.
     

  • Amana, in east central Iowa, is one of seven small villages established by a German religious sect in the 1850s and early 1860s.
     

  • Iowa is the nation's third most productive agricultural state, following only California and Texas in the value of its yearly farm output.

  • Kalona is the largest Amish community west of the Mississippi River. 

  • Fenlon Place Elevator in Dubuque is the world's steepest and shortest railway. 

  • The highest double track railroad bridge in the world, the Kate Shelley Bridge, is located at Boone. 

  • The famous actor John Wayne was born in Winterset on May 26, 1907. 

  • Quaker Oats, in Cedar Rapids, is the largest cereal company in the world.

  • Campers and motor homes are manufactured in Winnebago County. They're called Winnebago's. 

  • Iowa is the only landlocked state whose east and west borders are 100% formed by water.  Missouri and Mississippi rivers.