Royal, IA population, income and ZIP codes

Royal city is a very small community in Iowa, with 518 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #462 of 1,026 ranked by population — larger than 55% of them. The median age here is 31.2 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. 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 Royal city earn a median of $57,450 a year, 26.9% 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 15.3% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Royal city is valued at $79,400, 73.8% below the national figure and 49% below the $156,300 peer median, while median gross rent runs $798 a month, 43.2% below the national figure, or roughly $9,576 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 16.7% 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 1.4×, 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. 68.9% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

With 518 residents, a handful of survey responses moves every median on this page. Compare Royal 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.