Des Moines, IA population, income and ZIP codes

Des Moines city is a mid-size city in Iowa, with 212,464 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it first of 1,026 ranked by population. The median age here is 34.6 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly younger profile than the country as a whole. At this size the Census also publishes one-year estimates; the five-year values used here are steadier and let you compare against smaller neighbours on the same basis.

Households in Des Moines city earn a median of $63,966 a year, 18.6% below the national figure of $78,538 and 6% below the $67,791 median for the 290 Iowa cities we cover. The median is the midpoint household, not an average, so a handful of very high earners cannot drag it upward the way they distort a mean. Poverty reaches 14.9% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Des Moines city is valued at $183,700, 39.5% below the national figure and 18% above the $156,300 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,054 a month, 25% below the national figure, or roughly $12,648 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 19.8% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 2.9×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 60.4% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

No figure on this page is estimated by us; each one comes straight from the published ACS tables for this area. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.