Iowa Counties

Complete list of all 99 counties in Iowa with population, area, median income, and county seats — plus a free printable blank map.

Counties

Population

3,210,984

Area

55,858 sq mi

Capital

Des Moines

Time Zone

Central (CT)

Labeled outline map of Iowa counties. Download a printable version in SVG, PNG, or PDF.

All 99 Iowa counties

County	County Seat	Population ▼	Area	Median Income	Cities
Polk	—	499,242	574 mi²	$89,518	22
Linn	—	228,503	717 mi²	$81,298	17
Scott	—	175,556	458 mi²	$81,459	15
Johnson	—	159,873	614 mi²	$77,324	10
Black Hawk	—	134,441	566 mi²	$69,349	10
Dallas	—	110,737	588 mi²	$105,807	13
Story	—	99,238	573 mi²	$71,806	12
Woodbury	—	97,439	873 mi²	$74,132	15
Pottawattamie	—	92,784	950 mi²	$74,045	15
Dubuque	—	91,771	608 mi²	$80,513	11
Warren	—	52,140	570 mi²	$95,566	12
Clinton	—	45,809	695 mi²	$70,480	15
Muscatine	—	42,106	437 mi²	$68,688	9
Cerro Gordo	—	41,868	568 mi²	$70,472	9
Sioux	—	41,702	768 mi²	$83,904	13

How many counties does Iowa have?

Iowa has 99 counties covering 55,858 square miles and roughly 3,210,984 residents. The state was admitted to the Union in 1846 as the 29th state, and the current county boundaries reflect more than a century of administrative subdivision.

The largest county by land area is Kossuth County at 973 square miles, home to about 13,851 residents. The most populous is Polk County with approximately 499,242 residents — a density of about 870 people per square mile.

At the other end of the scale, Adams County has only about 3,218 residents.

Des Moines is both the state capital and the largest city in Iowa.

Related resources

Download a printable outline of Iowa’s county boundaries from our blank map of Iowa page — available in SVG, PNG, and PDF.

Use the What County Am I In? tool to detect which Iowa county a GPS location or address falls in, or the Address to County Lookup for batch input.

For demographic radius analysis, the Find ZIP Codes in Radius and Population Within Radius tools let you draw a circle around any Iowa address and see every ZIP code and the total population inside.

Two SimpleMapLab studies cover Iowa specifically: the 100-mile radius around Des Moines measures how much of the state lives within 100 miles of its capitol, and the loneliest town in Iowa ranks the state’s most isolated inhabited place. The county-counts blog post puts Iowa’s 99 counties in national context.

Frequently asked questions

Iowa has 99 counties. The state was admitted to the Union in 1846 as the 29th state. County boundaries have shifted over time as the population spread and new administrative units were carved from existing ones.

Kossuth County is the largest by land area at 973 square miles, with about 13,851 residents.

Polk County is the most populous, with approximately 499,242 residents over 574 square miles.

Adams County has the smallest population at about 3,218 residents.

Des Moines is both the state capital and the largest city in Iowa.

Population, area, and demographic figures are aggregated from ZIP-code-level US Census data (via the SimpleMaps dataset) and the US Census Gazetteer. County boundaries used to render the map are from the US Atlas TopoJSON build of the Census Bureau's TIGER/Line shapefiles. The data is public domain.

Data sources

Population and demographics are aggregated from ZIP-code-level US Census data via the SimpleMaps dataset. Countiesboundaries are from the US Atlas TopoJSON build of the Census Bureau’s TIGER/Line shapefiles. Land area is from the Census Gazetteer. State counts follow the US Census Bureau’s definition of counties and county-equivalents (50 states + DC = 3,143). All sources are public domain.

Neighboring states