Why is Iowa the only state not to double in population since 1900? How have the tariffs impacted Iowans? And were sharks added to Iowa’s list of dangerous wild animals?

4/2/2025

Iowa is the only state in the union that has not seen its population double since 1900. Don’t expect that to be part of our state’s economic development marketing campaign anytime soon, but it is true, according to the Iowa Chamber Alliance Talent Poll. In 1900, Iowa’s population was 2.2 million. In 2024, it was 3.2 million. 

Meanwhile, some cities around the metro are among the fastest-growing in the country. Ankeny has doubled its population since 2000, and the U.S. Census ranked it the fourth fastest-growing city in the country in 2018. In 2018, Realtor.com ranked Waukee the ninth fastest-growing city and, recently, numbers from Worldpopulationreview.com showed Waukee is the 47th fastest-growing city in 2025. Other cities like Norwalk and West Des Moines have made varying lists as well. 

So, why does Iowa have some of the fastest-growing suburbs but one of the worst overall population increases across the county? According to census data, Iowa’s biggest spike in population over a 10-year period was more than 100 years ago with an 8.1% jump from 1910 to 1920. On average, Iowa’s population grew slightly more than 3% every 10 years. So far, from 2020 to 2024, the population has grown by 1.6%. 

CITYVIEW spoke with Dr. David Peters, an Iowa State University Professor of Agricultural and Rural Policy and Extension and Rural Sociologist, to gain perspective on this issue. Dr. Peters and the ISU Extension and Outreach have released a population trend report called “Rural Iowa at a glance” each year since 2022. He says there are two main factors contributing to the slow increase in population. 

“One would be out-migration. That’s the biggest one. It’s the out-migration of people from rural Iowa into our economic engines of the state, which would be the Des Moines metro, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and Davenport. But, more importantly, Iowa’s economy has generally lagged behind the U.S. as a whole. Besides corn, soybeans and hogs, our biggest export is our people — particularly our younger people,” Dr. Peters said.

The other issue he stated is that the people who are leaving are of childbearing age. 

“All of those people — hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people — who have left the state of Iowa and have gone to other states, they’re having their kids in other states where they would have had them in Iowa had they stayed,” Dr. Peters said.

He says minority populations are the one saving grace for populations in these rural areas.

“The situation would be far, far worse if it were not for people of color. For persons of color, for the most part, in most of rural Iowa, that is the only growing segment of the population,” Dr. Peters said. “It’s not all from immigration, but a lot of it is from immigration, and it’s kept our population numbers up, particularly in rural Iowa.”

Dr. Peters says the Iowa economy has become robust in the last 10-15 years, but, in the 1980s and 1990s, Iowans looking for high-end professional jobs moved to larger cities in the Midwest like Minneapolis, Sioux Falls and Chicago.

“The one thing our state does really well is they produce very well-educated kids with good work ethics, and they do phenomenal and they can go, really, anywhere in the country. And they do,” Dr. Peters said.

Steps have been taken to correct this in the past two decades, according to Peters. The East Village has become an attractive place for young Iowans, as well as West Des Moines and other neighboring suburbs with their development of amenities. Peters’ solution to the outflow of young people? Let them leave, but give them a reason to return.

“One approach that I think is probably the best suited is to allow people to leave when they’re younger, but for the state and local communities to constantly engage with those people when they leave because you might be able to bring them back. If you’re in your 20s and early 30s, it’s probably best to let them go and experience that, but also make sure that, when they’re in a different stage in their life where they may want to move back to the state, that our state would become a destination,” Dr. Peters said.

He adds that, to become that destination, the state needs to continue investing in schools and social and cultural entertainment. …

The New York Times released an analysis on which states are being hit the hardest by President Trump’s retaliatory tariffs. China, specifically, has targeted corn farmers, according to the analysis, causing Iowa to be one of the states hit the hardest.

New York Times analysis of data from Lightcast and the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages shows that retaliatory tariffs target industries employing 8.4% of people in Iowa. This is the third-highest percentage behind 9.5% in Wisconsin and 8.5% in Indiana. Two counties in Iowa have had more than a third of the counties’ jobs affected by the retaliatory tariffs: Marion County at 35% and Hancock County at 34%. …

Hundreds of bills either survive or die each legislative session. CITYVIEW looked at some of the under-the-radar bills that advanced, as well as some bills that were killed after the first funnel.

Bills that survived include House File 865, which would change the definition of bullying to remove language that bullying is based on “any actual or perceived trait or characteristic of the student.”

House File 420 would have state universities conduct reviews of all undergraduate and graduate academic programs to see if they align with state workforce needs. 

House File 382 would expand existing law by allowing minors as young as 16 to provide “flex care” for children from infancy to age 2 at a child care center without adult supervision.

Senate File 544 would increase the salaries for state lawmakers by $20,000, a $100,000 salary bump for the governor, and pay increases of $76,788 for other statewide elected officials like the lieutenant governor, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer and secretary of agriculture. 

House File 764 would prohibit local governments that have traffic cameras from contracting with third-party vendors to collect traffic camera fines.

Bills that failed during the funnel include Senate File 107, which would have prohibited the practice of declawing cats.

House File 153 would have required Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa to reinstate men’s baseball teams.

Senate File 354 would have directed some state leaders to begin negotiations with Minnesota for the purchase of nine southern Minnesota counties.

House File 24 proposed adding sharks that can grow to a length of 23 inches or more, or that have a documented history of biting humans, to the state’s list of dangerous wild animals. n