City safety & data profile

AmesIA

Ames, IA is a 65K-resident city in Story County with a median household income of $60,991.

Story County, Iowa. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Ames, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Ames has a population larger than 86% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $277,400, and 1 hospital serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-04

65K
Population (place)
Top 14%
By size
$60,991
Median income (place)
$277,400
Median home (place)
25.5%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Ames

Ames posts a median household income higher than 24% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 hospital serves the Ames area.

Bottom 25%
by median income, US cities
1
hospital in & near Ames

Where Ames income ranks nationally

Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)

$60,991 Bottom 24% higher than 24% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Ames $0 $260,000 every profiled place, bucketed by value

Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year

Largest cities in IA

Population among 40 IA places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.

residents

What this shows Des Moines is the largest IA city on this list; Clive leads median income.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

Highest median incomes in IA

Median household income among the same 40-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.

median

What this shows Clive posts the highest place-level median income in IA; Des Moines is largest by headcount.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

The quick read

Reading Ames, IA beyond the headline numbers

Ames sits inside Story County, Iowa, at roughly 42.03°N, -93.62°W. Population 65,060, $60,991 median household income. Median home value $277,400, median rent $1,023. Poverty rate 25.5%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

1 hospital in/around Ames, 4/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER.

25.5% of Ames, IA residents live below the poverty line, placing it in the hardest-hit quarter of reporting cities. Read every median on this page against that: half the households are above it, and a large minority are far below.

A median home in Ames runs about 4.5 times median household income, above the midpoint. Multiples in this range usually mean buyers are arriving from outside the local wage base.

Remote work covers 12.1% of Ames workers, under the midpoint for reporting cities.

Among the CDC measures on this page, binge drinking departs furthest from its peer median: 24.2% in Ames, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

5.5% of Ames workers commute by public transit, a larger share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.

Ames's median age is 23.3 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Ames from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.

Population (place)
65,060
Ames · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$60,991
-32% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$277,400
-33% vs avg
Median Age (place)
23.3
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Story County): Ames's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.

20132024
Population
100K+11%
Median Income
$69,685+38%
Median Home Value
$258,700+59%
Poverty Rate
18.2%-13%
Unemployment
4.8%-23%

Economics

Economics indicators for Ames, IA
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$1,023/mo
Poverty Rate
25.5% +106% vs avg
Unemployment 5.8%
Bachelor's Degree+ 65.8%
Work From Home 12.1%
Public Transit 5.5%

Population

White 78.2%
African American 3.9%
Asian 9.3%
Two or More Ethnicities 3.5%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

Obesity
31.1%
Short Sleep Duration
29.1%
Binge Drinking
24.2%
High Blood Pressure
23.2%
Physical Inactivity
21.3%
Frequent Mental Distress
20.1%
Current Smoking
11.3%
Current Asthma
10.3%
Frequent Physical Distress
10.1%
Lack of Health Insurance
7.5%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 63.1%
Annual Checkup 72.7%

Other Measures

Diabetes
6.4%
Coronary Heart Disease
3.7%
Stroke
1.9%

Hospitals 1 total

Rating Distribution
★★★★★
0
★★★★
1
★★★
0
★★
0
★
0
Average Rating
4/5
Total Hospitals
1
With ER
1
MARY GREELEY MEDICAL CENTER
AMES · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★★★☆

What alerts and safety updates affect Ames?

No area-tagged alerts are on record for Ames right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet IA-AMES · Ames

Ames: 30 tagged alerts; lead category Environment Agency flood warning.

  • VOL-HEAVY 30 on record
  • MIX-LED 70% uk-floods
  • DESK-MIX NOAA
  • NEAR-PEER 36 · Somerset

Tagged alert mix: Ames

Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag

Value

What this shows 30 tagged notices on record for Ames.

Source Areazine publication corpus As of Live tagged feed

Nearest tagged-volume peer: Somerset, NJ (36 tagged · Δ6)

Counts reflect published articles tagged to Ames; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Iowa state hubs · Methodology

Cities with a similar tagged alert volume 4

Nearest published-notice counts on Areazine (30 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.

Somerset, NJ 36 alerts El Paso, TX 16 alerts Phoenix, AZ 15 alerts California, MD 15 alerts

Read with this city profile

Tracking Safety Alerts in Your Area

How Areazine tags Ames in the CAP feed
All safety guides →

Frequently Asked Questions 6

What is the population of Ames, IA? ▼
Ames, IA has a population of 65,060 people, located in Story County, Iowa.
What is the median household income in Ames? ▼
The median household income in Ames, IA is $60,991 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 25.5%.
What is the median home value in Ames? ▼
The median home value in Ames, IA is $277,400. Median rent is $1,023/month.
What are the top health concerns in Ames? ▼
The top health indicators in Ames include Obesity (31.1%), Short Sleep Duration (29.1%), Binge Drinking (24.2%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in Ames? ▼
Ames has 1 hospital with an average rating of 4/5 stars. 1 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in Ames? ▼
The median age in Ames, IA is 23.3 years. 65.8% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

Two ACS-derived peer sets for Ames, both outside Iowa so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside IA (25.5% here).

Cincinnati, OH 25.5% Kankakee, IL 25.5% Clearlake, CA 25.5% Madera, CA 25.6%

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside IA ($60,991 here).

Tullahoma, TN $60,979 Killeen, TX $60,977 Edgewater, FL $60,977 Apache Junction, AZ $60,975

Compare Ames with another city

Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.

Quick picks:

Nearby Cities 8

Boone, IA 13K Ankeny, IA 57K Johnston, IA 21K Grimes, IA 11K Urbandale, IA 44K Altoona, IA 17K Des Moines, IA 214K Clive, IA 15K
All cities in Iowa → Compare Ames vs Boone → All comparisons → Browse all cities

Using Ames's profile

Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.

  • Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Ames area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
  • Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
  • Compare Ames against Iowa peers on any ranking lens. Explore Iowa

Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.

Data Sources

All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Story County) where that is the smallest published unit.

Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.