City safety & data profile
OttumwaIA
Ottumwa, IA is a 25K-resident city in Wapello County with a median household income of $61,103.
Wapello County, Iowa. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Ottumwa, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Ottumwa has a population larger than 54% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $106,300, and 1 hospital serving the surrounding area.
Data updated 2026-09-04
- 25K
- Population (place)
- Top 46%
- By size
- $61,103
- Median income (place)
- $106,300
- Median home (place)
- 17.2%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Ottumwa
Ottumwa posts a median household income higher than 24% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 hospital serves the Ottumwa area.
- Bottom 25%
- by median income, US cities
- 1
- hospital in & near Ottumwa
Where Ottumwa income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$61,103 Bottom 24% higher than 24% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
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.
- Des Moines
Des Moines, IA
214,133 residents
- Cedar Rapids
Cedar Rapids, IA
130,405 residents
- Davenport
Davenport, IA
102,582 residents
- Sioux City 82,821
Sioux City, IA
82,821 residents
- Iowa City 74,220
Iowa City, IA
74,220 residents
- Waterloo 68,460
Waterloo, IA
68,460 residents
- Ames 65,060
Ames, IA
65,060 residents
- West Des Moi… 64,113
West Des Moines, IA
64,113 residents
- Council Bluffs 62,597
Council Bluffs, IA
62,597 residents
- Dubuque 58,799
Dubuque, IA
58,799 residents
What this shows Des Moines is the largest IA city on this list; Clive leads median income.
Highest median incomes in IA
Median household income among the same 40-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.
- Clive
Clive, IA
$132,121 median
- Grimes
Grimes, IA
$120,037 median
- Urbandale
Urbandale, IA
$112,795 median
- Ankeny
Ankeny, IA
$108,198 median
- Johnston
Johnston, IA
$106,551 median
- Norwalk
Norwalk, IA
$102,722 median
- North Liberty
North Liberty, IA
$102,102 median
- Waukee
Waukee, IA
$101,029 median
- Bettendorf
Bettendorf, IA
$100,495 median
- Marion
Marion, IA
$86,743 median
What this shows Clive posts the highest place-level median income in IA; Des Moines is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Ottumwa, IA beyond the headline numbers
Ottumwa sits inside Wapello County, Iowa, at roughly 41.02°N, -92.41°W. Population 24,624, $61,103 median household income. Median home value $106,300, median rent $921. Poverty rate 17.2%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
1 hospital in/around Ottumwa, 2/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER.
17.2% of Ottumwa, 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.
Housing is inexpensive against local pay -- the median home in Ottumwa runs about 1.7 years of median household income, in the cheapest quarter of reporting cities.
Only 4.3% of Ottumwa workers report working from home, the lowest quarter of reporting cities -- an economy still built around showing up somewhere.
Among the CDC measures on this page, current smoking departs furthest from its peer median: 18.7% in Ottumwa, 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 Ottumwa 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.
10-Year Trends 2013–2024
County-level trend (Wapello County): Ottumwa'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.
Economics
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 17.2% +39% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 4.6% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 20.8% |
| Work From Home | 4.3% |
| Public Transit | 1.2% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
Hospitals 1 total
What alerts and safety updates affect Ottumwa?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Ottumwa right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet IA-OTTUMWA · Ottumwa
Ottumwa: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.
- FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
- LEAD-NONE Feed idle
- DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Ottumwa; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Iowa state hubs · Methodology
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 6
What is the population of Ottumwa, IA? ▼
What is the median household income in Ottumwa? ▼
What is the median home value in Ottumwa? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Ottumwa? ▼
How many hospitals are in Ottumwa? ▼
What is the median age in Ottumwa? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Ottumwa, both outside Iowa so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside IA (17.2% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside IA ($61,103 here).
Compare Ottumwa 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.
Nearby Cities 8
Using Ottumwa'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 Ottumwa 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 Ottumwa 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 (Wapello 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.