Storm Lake, IA population, income and ZIP codes

Storm Lake city is a mid-size town in Iowa, with 11,275 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #36 of 1,026 ranked by population — larger than 96% 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. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.

Households in Storm Lake city earn a median of $58,341 a year, 25.7% below the national figure of $78,538 and 14% below the $67,791 median for the 290 Iowa cities we cover. Household income here is measured before tax and pooled across everyone at the address, which is why it reads higher than typical individual earnings in the same area. Poverty reaches 7.7% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Storm Lake city is valued at $163,600, 46.1% below the national figure and 5% above the $156,300 peer median, while median gross rent runs $830 a month, 41% below the national figure, or roughly $9,960 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 17.1% 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 2.8×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 64.4% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

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.