Dows, IA population, income and ZIP codes

Dows city is a very small community in Iowa, with 544 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #450 of 1,026 ranked by population — larger than 56% of them. The median age here is 37 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly younger profile than the country as a whole. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in Dows city earn a median of $58,750 a year, 25.2% below the national figure of $78,538 and 13% 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 7.2% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Dows city is valued at $56,200, 81.5% below the national figure and 64% below the $156,300 peer median, while median gross rent runs $658 a month, 53.2% below the national figure, or roughly $7,896 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 13.4% 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 1×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so purchase prices are unusually low against local pay, the pattern in places where supply is plentiful and wage growth has been flat. 73.3% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

With 544 residents, a handful of survey responses moves every median on this page. Compare Dows city against its county rather than against national figures.

Every value on this page is published directly by the Census for this area — nothing is modelled or interpolated. 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.