City safety & data profile
Storm LakeIA
Storm Lake, IA is a 11K-resident city in Buena Vista County with a median household income of $62,765.
Buena Vista County, Iowa. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Storm Lake, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Storm Lake has a population larger than 6% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $172,200, and 1 hospital serving the surrounding area.
Data updated 2026-09-05
- 11K
- Population (place)
- Bottom 7%
- By size
- $62,765
- Median income (place)
- $172,200
- Median home (place)
- 7%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Storm Lake
Storm Lake posts a median household income higher than 27% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 hospital serves the Storm Lake area.
- Bottom 28%
- by median income, US cities
- 1
- hospital in & near Storm Lake
Where Storm Lake income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$62,765 Bottom 27% higher than 27% 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 Storm Lake, IA beyond the headline numbers
Storm Lake sits inside Buena Vista County, Iowa, at roughly 42.64°N, -95.21°W. Population 10,910, $62,765 median household income. Median home value $172,200, median rent $898. Poverty rate 7%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
1 hospital in/around Storm Lake, 2/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER.
At 7%, poverty in Storm Lake, 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 Storm Lake runs about 2.7 years of median household income, in the cheapest quarter of reporting cities.
Only 4.3% of Storm Lake 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, lack of health insurance departs furthest from its peer median: 17.3% in Storm Lake, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.
Storm Lake's median age is 30.9 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Storm Lake 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 (Buena Vista County): Storm Lake'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 | 7% -44% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 4.4% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 18.9% |
| Work From Home | 4.3% |
| Public Transit | 1% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
Hospitals 1 total
What alerts and safety updates affect Storm Lake?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Storm Lake right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet IA-STORM-LAKE · Storm Lake
Storm Lake: 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 Storm Lake; 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 Storm Lake, IA? ▼
What is the median household income in Storm Lake? ▼
What is the median home value in Storm Lake? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Storm Lake? ▼
How many hospitals are in Storm Lake? ▼
What is the median age in Storm Lake? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Storm Lake, both outside Iowa so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside IA (7% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside IA ($62,765 here).
Compare Storm Lake 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 Storm Lake'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 Storm Lake 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 Storm Lake 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 (Buena Vista 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.