Iowa City, IA population, income and ZIP codes

Iowa City city is a small city in Iowa, with 75,264 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #5 of 1,026 ranked by population — larger than 99% of them. The median age here is 26.3 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. 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 Iowa City city earn a median of $57,533 a year, 26.7% below the national figure of $78,538 and 15% 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 26.3% of residents here, well above the 12.4% national rate, which is the single clearest signal in this dataset that median income here is carried by a narrow band of households.

The typical owner-occupied home in Iowa City city is valued at $273,600, 9.8% below the national figure and 75% above the $156,300 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,094 a month, 22.2% below the national figure, or roughly $13,128 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 22.8% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 4.8×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 46.3% 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.

A median age of 26.3 means a large student or early-career population; income medians in places like this understate household resources, since many residents are supported from outside the address.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. 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.