
Iowa · Census place 84900
What Cheer, IA population, income and ZIP codes
Quick answer
The population of the city of What Cheer, Iowa (What Cheer, IA — Census place “What Cheer city”) is 634 residents, ranking #417 of 1026 places in Iowa. Median household income is $49,688, the median home is worth $47,900 and median gross rent runs $816 a month. Looking for the What Cheer Iowa ZIP code list? 1 ZIP codes serve What Cheer, IA: 50268.
- Population
- 634What Cheer city residents
- Median household income
- $49,688Past 12 months, inflation adjusted
- Median home value
- $47,900Owner-occupied units
- Median gross rent
- $816Rent plus utilities, monthly
- Median age
- 36.7 yrsAll residents
- Homeownership rate
- 70.9%Owner-occupied households
What Cheer ZIP codes (Iowa)
Census ZCTAs whose delivery area overlaps What Cheer.
The What Cheer IA ZIP code list below covers 1 ZIP code. Open any one for its population, income, housing and rent profile.
What the numbers mean in What Cheer city
Housing cost measured against local earnings.
A household earning the What Cheer city median would spend about 19.7% of gross income on the median rent. The 30% mark is the federal threshold for cost burden, so anything above it signals a stretched rental market. The median home costs 1.0× the median household income; nationally that ratio sits near 4.5×. Poverty affects 20.7% of residents and 70.9% of households own their home.
Source: US Census Bureau, ACS 2019-2023 5-year estimates · rates as published for 2019-2023 ACS 5-year
What Cheer city, IA in context
How this area compares with national benchmarks.
What Cheer city is a very small community in Iowa, with 634 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #417 of 1,026 ranked by population — larger than 59% of them. The median age here is 36.7 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 What Cheer city earn a median of $49,688 a year, 36.7% below the national figure of $78,538 and 27% below the $67,791 median for the 290 Iowa cities we cover. This figure covers the household, not the worker: two people on ordinary wages at one address outrank a single professional in the same table. Poverty reaches 20.7% 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 What Cheer city is valued at $47,900, 84.2% below the national figure and 69% below the $156,300 peer median, while median gross rent runs $816 a month, 42% below the national figure, or roughly $9,792 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 19.7% 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×, 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. 70.9% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.
With 634 residents, a handful of survey responses moves every median on this page. Compare What Cheer city against its county rather than against national figures.
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.
Compare with nearby places
Places of similar size in Iowa.
- Buffalo Center city 1,000
- Woodward city 1,002
- Villisca city 1,004
- Newhall city 1,012
- Janesville city 1,012
- Aplington city 1,012
- Keosauqua city 1,014
- Griswold city 1,020
Keep going
More Iowa coverage.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about this area.
- What is the population of What Cheer city?
- What Cheer city has 634 residents on Census ACS 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, ranking #417 of 1,026 in Iowa.
- What is the median household income in What Cheer city?
- Median household income in What Cheer city is $49,688 a year, 36.7% below the national figure of $78,538.
- How much does it cost to rent or buy in What Cheer city?
- Median gross rent is $816 a month and the median home value is $47,900, so rent absorbs about 19.7% of median household income.
- Is What Cheer city affordable compared with the rest of the US?
- Homes cost about 1× the local median income here versus roughly 3.9× nationally, so What Cheer city is more affordable to buy in than the typical US market, and rent takes 19.7% of median income against the 30% cost-burden line.
- How current is this What Cheer city data?
- All figures come from the US Census Bureau American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year five-year estimates. 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.