Jamaica, IA population, income and ZIP codes

Jamaica city is a very small community in Iowa, with 202 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #697 of 1,026 ranked by population — larger than 32% of them. The median age here is 38 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 Jamaica city earn a median of $53,750 a year, 31.6% below the national figure of $78,538 and 21% below the $67,791 median for the 290 Iowa cities we cover. Median household income counts every pre-tax dollar arriving at an address — wages, self-employment, Social Security, pensions, interest and public assistance — for everyone living there, so multi-earner households pull the figure up even where individual pay is modest. Poverty reaches 17.5% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Jamaica city is valued at $65,700, 78.3% below the national figure and 58% below the $156,300 peer median, while median gross rent runs $536 a month, 61.9% below the national figure, or roughly $6,432 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 12% 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 1.2×, 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. 70.4% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

With 202 residents, a handful of survey responses moves every median on this page. Compare Jamaica city against its county rather than against national figures.

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.