West Des Moines, IA population, income and ZIP codes

West Des Moines city is a small city in Iowa, with 69,893 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #7 of 1,026 ranked by population — larger than 99% of them. The median age here is 36.5 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly younger profile than the country as a whole. 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 West Des Moines city earn a median of $84,925 a year, 8.1% above the national figure of $78,538 and 25% above 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 7.3% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in West Des Moines city is valued at $286,300, 5.6% below the national figure and 83% above the $156,300 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,194 a month, 15.1% below the national figure, or roughly $14,328 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 16.9% 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 3.4×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 57.4% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. 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.

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.