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Data on this report is based on areas within the legal city boundary, outlined in black on the map. Any additional neighborhoods shown on the map are associated with the city by name and are included for reference only.

Des Moines, IA
Real Estate & Demographic Data






Des Moines profile


Living in Des Moines



Des Moines is a relatively large city located in the state of Iowa. With a population of 211,034 people and 62 associated neighborhoods, Des Moines is the largest community in Iowa.

Also of interest is that Des Moines has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 10.25% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.

The overall education level of Des Moines is somewhat higher than in the average US city of 21.84%: 28.70% of adults 25 and older in the city have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Des Moines in 2018 was $34,347, which is middle income relative to Iowa and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $137,388 for a family of four. However, Des Moines contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Des Moines is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Des Moines home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Des Moines residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Des Moines also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 14.34% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Des Moines include German, Irish, English, Italian, and Norwegian.

The most common language spoken in Des Moines is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and African languages.