City safety & data profile

MarionIA

Marion, IA is a 37K-resident city in Linn County with a median household income of $86,743.

Linn County, Iowa. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Marion, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Marion has a population larger than 71% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, and a median home value of $241,700.

Data updated 2026-09-04

37K
Population (place)
Top 29%
By size
$86,743
Median income (place)
$241,700
Median home (place)
8.1%
Poverty rate (place)
My saved cities

The read on Marion

Marion posts a median household income higher than 57% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 recent safety alert is on record.

Top 43%
by median income, US cities
1
safety alert on record

Where Marion income ranks nationally

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

$86,743 Top 43% higher than 57% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Marion $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 Marion, IA beyond the headline numbers

Marion sits inside Linn County, Iowa, at roughly 42.03°N, -91.60°W. Population 37,330, $86,743 median household income. Median home value $241,700, median rent $961. Poverty rate 8.1%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

At 8.1%, poverty in Marion, IA runs below the midpoint of reporting cities -- enough to matter locally, not enough to dominate the city's profile.

Housing is inexpensive against local pay -- the median home in Marion runs about 2.8 years of median household income, in the cheapest quarter of reporting cities.

19.3% of Marion workers report working from home, the highest quarter of reporting cities. Where that share runs this high, local income increasingly reflects employers located somewhere else.

Among the CDC measures on this page, binge drinking departs furthest from its peer median: 21.1% in Marion, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Marion 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)
37,330
Marion · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$86,743
-3% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$241,700
-42% vs avg
Median Age (place)
40.6
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Linn County): Marion'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
230K+8%
Median Income
$77,649+36%
Median Home Value
$214,300+49%
Poverty Rate
9.4%-3%
Unemployment
3.4%-38%

Economics

Economics indicators for Marion, IA
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$961/mo
Poverty Rate
8.1% -35% vs avg
Unemployment 3.5%
Bachelor's Degree+ 38.1%
Work From Home 19.3%
Public Transit 0.4%

Population

White 87.6%
African American 2.6%
Asian 2.1%
Two or More Ethnicities 4.9%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

Obesity
33.8%
Short Sleep Duration
30.4%
High Blood Pressure
29.6%
Binge Drinking
21.1%
Physical Inactivity
20.2%
Frequent Mental Distress
15.5%
Current Smoking
12.1%
Frequent Physical Distress
11.2%
Current Asthma
10.2%
Diabetes
10%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 71.9%
Annual Checkup 78.1%

Other Measures

Coronary Heart Disease
5.6%
Lack of Health Insurance
5.4%
Stroke
2.8%

What alerts and safety updates affect Marion? 1

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet IA-MARION-IA · Marion

Marion: 16 tagged alerts; lead category NWS weather alert.

  • VOL-ACTIVE 16 on record
  • WX-LED 100% weather
  • DESK-MIX NOAA
  • PHOTO-FINISH ≈ El Paso
  • RANK-MID #56 tagged volume

Tagged alert mix: Marion

Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag

Value

What this shows 16 tagged notices on record for Marion.

Source Areazine publication corpus As of Live tagged feed

Nearest tagged-volume peer: El Paso, TX (16 tagged · Δ0)

Counts reflect published articles tagged to Marion; 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 (16 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.

Read with this city profile

Frequently Asked Questions 5

What is the population of Marion, IA?
Marion, IA has a population of 37,330 people, located in Linn County, Iowa.
What is the median household income in Marion?
The median household income in Marion, IA is $86,743 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 8.1%.
What is the median home value in Marion?
The median home value in Marion, IA is $241,700. Median rent is $961/month.
What are the top health concerns in Marion?
The top health indicators in Marion include Obesity (33.8%), Short Sleep Duration (30.4%), High Blood Pressure (29.6%). Data from CDC PLACES.
What is the median age in Marion?
The median age in Marion, IA is 40.6 years. 38.1% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

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

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside IA (8.1% here).

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside IA ($86,743 here).

Compare Marion 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

Using Marion'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 Marion 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 Marion 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 (Linn 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.