The Des Moines metropolitan area, officially known as the Des Moines–West Des Moines, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is located at the confluence of the Des Moines River and the Raccoon River. Des Moines serves as the capital of the U.S. state of

Iowa Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...

The metro area consists of six counties in central Iowa:

Polk Polk may refer to: People * James K. Polk, 11th president of the United States * Polk (name), other people with the name Places *Polk (CTA), a train station in Chicago, Illinois * Polk, Illinois, an unincorporated community * Polk, Missouri ...

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Warren A warren is a network of wild rodent or lagomorph, typically rabbit burrows. Domestic warrens are artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. The term evolved from the medieval Angl ...

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

, Guthrie, and

Jasper Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases,Kostov, R. I. 2010. Review on the mineralogical systematics of jasper and related rocks. – Archaeometry Workshop, 7, 3, 209-213PDF/ref> ...

. The

Des Moines Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moine ...

–

Ames Ames may refer to: Places United States * Ames, Arkansas, a place in Arkansas * Ames, Colorado * Ames, Illinois * Ames, Indiana * Ames, Iowa, the most populous city bearing this name * Ames, Kansas * Ames, Nebraska * Ames, New York * Ames, ...

– West Des Moines

Combined Statistical Area Combined statistical area (CSA) is a United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) term for a combination of adjacent metropolitan (MSA) and micropolitan statistical areas (µSA) across the 50 US states and the territory of Puerto Ric ...

(CSA) encompasses the separate metropolitan area of Ames (Story County), and the separate micropolitan areas of Pella (Marion County), Boone (Boone County) and Oskaloosa (Mahaska County). The Des Moines area is a fast-growing metro area. Des Moines–West Des Moines, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area Des Moines-Ames-West Des Moines, IA Combined Statistical Area

Geography

The lowest geographical point in the metropolitan area is the Des Moines River, where it passes the northeastern corner of Warren County, and the southeastern corner of Polk County.

Historical definitions

Polk County was originally the only county in the Des Moines metropolitan area when the United States Bureau of the Budget (now the

United States Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, poli ...

) began defining metropolitan areas in 1950. Warren County was added in 1973 and Dallas County was added in 1983. Guthrie and Madison counties were added in 2003 after metropolitan areas were redefined. In 2005 the area was renamed the Des Moines–West Des Moines Metropolitan Statistical Area after a special census showed that West Des Moines had topped the 50,000 mark in population. Jasper county was added in September 2018.

Communities by size

Population as of 2020 Census

Principal City

(214,133)

Places with 50,000 to 100,000 inhabitants

* West Des Moines (68,723) * Ankeny (67,887)

Places with 10,000 to 50,000 inhabitants

Urbandale Urbandale is a city in Polk and Dallas counties, Iowa, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city population was 45,580. It is part of the Des Moines– West Des Moines Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Urbandale was incorporated ...

(45,580) * Johnston (24,064) * Waukee (23,940) * Altoona (19,565) *

Clive Clive is a name. People and fictional characters with the name include: People Given name * Clive Allen (born 1961), English football player * Clive Anderson (born 1952), British television, radio presenter, comedy writer and former barrister ...

(18,601) *

Indianola Indianola may refer to: Places in the United States * Indianola, California (disambiguation) ** Indianola (Eureka), California * Indianola, Florida * Indianola, Georgia * Indianola, Illinois * Indianola, Iowa * Indianola, Kansas, a former settleme ...

(15,833) * Newton (15,760) *

Grimes Claire Elise Boucher (; born March 17, 1988), known professionally as Grimes, is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Her early work has been described as extending from "lo-fi R&B" to futuristic dance-pop, and has in ...

(15,392) * Norwalk (12,799) * Pleasant Hill (10,147)

Places with 1,000 to 10,000 inhabitants

Perry Perry, also known as pear cider, is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears, traditionally the perry pear. It has been common for centuries in England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land ...

(7,836) * Bondurant (7,365) * Adel (6,153) * Winterset (5,353) * Windsor Heights (5,252) *

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers Eden, Caldew and Petteril. It is the administrative centre of the City ...

(4,160) * Saylorville (

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, su ...

) (3,301) * Mitchellville (2,485) * Polk City (2,344) * Colfax (2,255) * Monroe (1,967) *

Dallas Center Dallas Center is a city in Dallas County, Iowa, United States. The population was 1,901 during the 2020 census. It is part of the Des Moines– West Des Moines Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Dallas Center got its start in the year 1869, f ...

(1,901) *

Stuart Stuart may refer to: Names * Stuart (name), a given name and surname (and list of people with the name) Automobile *Stuart (automobile) Places Australia Generally *Stuart Highway, connecting South Australia and the Northern Territory Northe ...

(partial) (1,782) * Prairie City (1,700) * Granger (1,654) * Guthrie Center (1,593) * Van Meter (1,484) * Earlham (1,410) *

Woodward A woodward is a warden of a wood. Woodward may also refer to: Places ;United States * Woodward, Iowa * Woodward, Oklahoma * Woodward, Pennsylvania, a census-designated place * Woodward Avenue, a street in Tallahassee, Florida, which bisects the ca ...

(1,346) * Coon Rapids (partial) (1,300) * Panora (1,091)

Places with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants

* Baxter (962) * De Soto (915) * Elkhart (882) * Sully (881) * Adair (partial) (791) * Milo (778) *

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since ...

(733) * Redfield (731) *

Dexter Dexter may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Dexter, the main character of the American animated series ''Dexter's Laboratory'' that aired from 1996 to 2003 * Dexter, a fictional character in the British web series ''Diary of a Bad Man'' * Dexte ...

(640) * St. Charles (640) * Kellogg (606) *

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro c ...

(509) * New Virginia (498) * Runnells (457) * Cumming (436) *

Alleman Allman (variants Alleman, Allmand) is an English surname from the Norman French ''aleman'' "German". In North American usage, the spelling ''Allman'' likely also stands in for the cognate Spanish name Aleman (surname), Aleman (to avoid the reading ...

(423) * Martensdale (421) *

Bayard Bayard may refer to: People *Bayard (given name) *Bayard (surname) *Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard (1473–1524) French knight Places *Bayard, Delaware, an unincorporated community * Bayard (Jacksonville), Florida, a neighborhood * Bayard, ...

(405) * Casey (partial) (387) * Lynnville (380) * Lacona (345) * Menlo (345) * Minburn (325) *

Mingo The Mingo people are an Iroquoian group of Native Americans, primarily Seneca and Cayuga, who migrated west from New York to the Ohio Country in the mid-18th century, and their descendants. Some Susquehannock survivors also joined them, and ...

(302) * Sheldahl (partial) (297) *

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

(267) * Bagley (233) * Linden (200) *

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispan ...

(195) * Oakland Acres (176) *

Patterson Patterson may refer to: People * Patterson (surname) Places ;Canada * Pattersons Corners, Ontario * Patterson Township, Ontario *Patterson, Calgary a neighbourhood in Calgary, Alberta. ;United States of America * Patterson, Arkansas * Patterson ...

(176) * Lambs Grove (174) * Reasnor (152) * Bouton (127) *

Dawson Dawson may refer to: People and fictional characters *Dawson (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Dawson (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name Places Antarctica ...

(116) * Ackworth (115) * East Peru (115) * St. Marys (108) * Macksburg (97) * Spring Hill (68) * Sandyville (58) * Bevington (57) * Valeria (39)

Unincorporated places

Avon Avon may refer to: * River Avon (disambiguation), several rivers Organisations *Avon Buses, a bus operating company in Wirral, England *Avon Coachworks, a car body builder established in 1919 at Warwick, England, relaunched in 1922, following ...

* Berwick * Booneville *

Farrar Farrar may refer to: * Cape Farrar, a headland on the Boothia Peninsula in Nunavut, Canada * Farrar, Georgia, a US unincorporated community * Farrar, Iowa, a US unincorporated community * Farrar Landing, Michigan, an unincorporated community * ...

* Ira * Killduff * Rushville * Liberty Center

Demographics of metropolitan area

As of the census of 2000, there were 481,394 people, 189,371 households, and 126,177 families residing within the MSA. The racial makeup of the MSA was 90.24%

White White is the lightness, lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully diffuse reflection, reflect and scattering, scatter all the ...

, 3.85%

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

, 0.24% Native American, 2.15% Asian, 0.05%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of Ocea ...

, 2.00% from other races, and 1.46% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...

or Latino of any race were 4.02% of the population. The median income for a household in the MSA was $44,667, and the median income for a family was $52,617. Males had a median income of $34,710 versus $25,593 for females. The per capita income for the MSA was $21,253. The census tracts for 2000 are shown in the map from the Iowa Data Center.

Economy

Des Moines is a major center of the US insurance industry and has a sizable financial services and publishing business base. The city was credited as the "number one spot for U.S. insurance companies" in a ''

Business Wire Business Wire is an American company that disseminates full-text press releases from thousands of companies and organizations worldwide to news media, financial markets, disclosure systems, investors, information web sites, databases, bloggers ...

'' article and named the third-largest "insurance capital" of the world. The city is the headquarters for the

Principal Financial Group Principal Financial Group is an American global financial investment management and insurance company headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. Business operations Four segments comprise the company: Retirement and Income Solutions, Principal G ...

, Ruan Transportation, TMC Transportation, EMC Insurance Companies, and

Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield is a mutual insurance in the United States with more than two million members in Iowa and South Dakota. It is the dominant health insurance in Iowa. It is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Associ ...

. Other major corporations such as

Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and inter ...

Cognizant Cognizant is an American multinational information technology services and consulting company. It is headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey, United States. Cognizant is part of the NASDAQ-100 and trades under CTSH. It was founded as an in-hous ...

Voya Financial Voya Financial is an American financial, retirement, investment and insurance company based in New York City. Voya began as ING U.S., the United States operating subsidiary of ING Group, which was spun off in 2013 and established independent fina ...

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and affiliated companies, commonly shortened to Nationwide, is a group of large United States, U.S. insurance and financial services companies based in Columbus, Ohio. The company also operates regional headqua ...

ACE Limited An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the ...

, Marsh,

Monsanto The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed i ...

, and

Corteva Corteva, Inc. (also known as Corteva Agriscience) is a major American agricultural chemical and seed company that was the agricultural unit of DowDuPont prior to being spun off as an independent public company. DowDuPont announced the Corteva n ...

have large operations in or near the metropolitan area. In recent years,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

, Hewlett-Packard, and

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...

have built data-processing and logistical facilities in the Des Moines area. The Des Moines area is home to 5

Fortune 1000 The Fortune 1000 are the 1,000 largest American companies ranked by revenues, as compiled by the American business magazine '' Fortune''. It only includes companies which are incorporated or authorized to do business in the United States, and f ...

headquarters – 2021 rankings

Education

Colleges and universities

* Central College - Pella *

Des Moines Area Community College Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) is a public community college in central Iowa. The college served 35,488 credit students and 29,021 noncredit students in 200 programs in 2019. History Des Moines Area Community College was created o ...

- Des Moines, Ankeny, Boone, Carroll, Newton and West Des Moines *

Drake University Drake University is a private university in Des Moines, Iowa. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs, including professional programs in business, law, and pharmacy. Drake's law school is among the 25 oldest in the United States. Hi ...

- Des Moines *

Faith Baptist Bible College Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary is a private Christian college and seminary in Ankeny, Iowa. History Early Omaha years At the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, William H. Jordan heard Dwight L. Moody speak about the importanc ...

- Ankeny *

Grand View University Grand View University is a private liberal arts university in Des Moines, Iowa. Founded in 1896 and affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the university enrolls approximately 2,000 students and is accredited by the High ...

- Des Moines *

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the ...

- Ames * Mercy College of Health Sciences - Des Moines *

Purdue University Global Purdue University Global, Inc (PG), formerly Kaplan University, is a public online university that operates as a public-benefit corporation and is part of the Purdue University system. It returns 12.5% of operating revenue to its former for-pro ...

- Des Moines *

Simpson College Simpson College is a private Methodist liberal arts college in Indianola, Iowa. It is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and has about 1,250 full-time and 300 part-time students. In addition to the Indianola residential campus, Simpso ...

- Indianola and West Des Moines *

University of Phoenix University of Phoenix (UoPX) is a private for-profit university headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. Founded in 1976, the university confers certificates and degrees at the certificate, associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree lev ...

- Des Moines *

William Penn University William Penn University is a private university in Oskaloosa, Iowa. It was founded by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in 1873 as Penn College. In 1933, the name was changed to William Penn College, and finally to William Pe ...

- Oskaloosa

Sports

Transportation

Airports

Des Moines International Airport Des Moines International Airport is a commercial service airport 5 miles (8 km) southwest of Des Moines, the capital of Iowa. The airport's 2,600 acre campus includes two runways, 46 buildings, 7 parking facilities, and the terminal. Six ...

(DSM) ''Relief Airports'' * Ankeny Regional Airport (IKV) * Ames Municipal Airport (AMW) * Boone Municipal Airport (BNW) * Grinnell Regional Airport (GGI) * Guthrie County Regional Airport (GCT) * Newton Municipal Airport (TNU) * Oskaloosa Municipal Airport (OOA) * Winterset Municipal Airport (343)

Major Highways

Interstates * I-35 (IA)

I-35 Interstate 35 (I-35) is a major Interstate Highway in the central United States. As with most primary Interstates that end in a five, it is a major cross-country, north–south route. It stretches from Laredo, Texas, near the Mexican border ...

I-80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as o ...

I-235 U S Highways * US 6

US 6 U.S. Route 6 (US 6), also called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, honoring the American Civil War veterans association, is a main route of the U.S. Highway system. While it currently runs east-northeast from Bishop, California, to ...

US 65 U.S. Route 65 (US 65) is a north–south United States highway in the southern and midwestern United States. The southern terminus of the route is at U.S. Route 425 in Clayton, Louisiana. The northern terminus is at Interstate 35 just south of ...

US 69 U.S. Route 69 (US 69) is a major north–south United States highway. When it was first created, it was only long, but it has since been expanded into a Minnesota to Texas cross-country route. The highway's southern terminus (as well as ...

Iowa Highways * Elongated circle 5

IA 5 *

IA 28 * Elongated circle 141

IA 141 * Elongated circle 163

IA 163 *

IA 415

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Des Moines Metropolitan Area Regions of Iowa Geography of Des Moines, Iowa