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 and largest city of the U.S. state of

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

. The metro area consists of six counties in central Iowa: Polk,

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, Warren, Madison, Guthrie, and

Jasper Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases, is an opaque, impure variety of silica, usually red, yellow, brown or green in color; and rarely blue. The common red color is due to ...

. The Des Moines– Ames– West Des Moines Combined Statistical Area (CSA) encompasses the separate metropolitan area of Ames ( Story Country), and the separate micropolitan area of Boone ( Boone County). The Des Moines area is a fast-growing metro area.

Demographics

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). The office's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, while it also examines agency pro ...

) 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

* Des Moines (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 (45,580) * Waukee (31,823) * Johnston (24,064) * Altoona (19,565) * Clive (18,601) * Indianola (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 lyrics often touch on science fiction and feminist themes. The visuals in her videos are elabora ...

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

Places with 1,000 to 10,000 inhabitants

Perry Perry or pear cider is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears, traditionally in England (particularly Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire), parts of South Wales, France (especially Normandy and Anjou), Canada, Austral ...

(7,836) * Bondurant (7,365) * Adel (6,153) * Polk City (5,543) * Winterset (5,353) * Windsor Heights (5,252) *

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

(4,160) * Saylorville (

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), 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 counte ...

) (3,301) * Mitchellville (2,485) * Colfax (2,255) * Monroe (1,967) * Dallas Center (1,901) * Stuart (partial) (1,782) * Prairie City (1,700) * Granger (1,654) * Guthrie Center (1,593) * Van Meter (1,484) * Earlham (1,410) * Woodward (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 List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

(733) * Redfield (731) * Dexter (640) * St. Charles (640) * Kellogg (606) *

Truro Truro (; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England; it is the southernmost city in the United Kingdom, just under west-south-west of Charing Cross in London. It is Cornwall's county town, s ...

(509) * New Virginia (498) * Runnells (457) * Cumming (436) * Alleman (423) * Martensdale (421) * Bayard (405) * Casey (partial) (387) * Lynnville (380) * Lacona (345) * Menlo (345) * Minburn (325) * Mingo (302) * Sheldahl (partial) (297) *

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

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

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

(195) * Oakland Acres (176) * Patterson (176) * Lambs Grove (174) * Reasnor (152) * Bouton (127) * Dawson (116) * Ackworth (115) * East Peru (115) * St. Marys (108) * Macksburg (97) * Spring Hill (68) * Sandyville (58) * Bevington (57) * Valeria (39)

Unincorporated places

* Avon * Berwick * Booneville * Farrar * 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 lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 3.85%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

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

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

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

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

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, Inc. (PFG) is an American global financial investment management and insurance company headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, United States. History PFG was first founded under the name Bankers Life Insurance Company. Ba ...

, Ruan Transportation, TMC Transportation, EMC Insurance Companies, and Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. Other major corporations such as

Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with a significant global presence. The company operates in 35 countries and serves over 70 million customers worldwide. It is a systemically important fi ...

Cognizant Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational information technology consulting and outsourcing company originally founded in India. It is headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey, United States. Co ...

, Voya Financial,

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

, ACE Limited, 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 ...

, and

Corteva Corteva, Inc. (also known as Corteva Agriscience), headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, is a producer of products for seed and crop protection. The company produces herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, and biologicals (natural herbicides) tha ...

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

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

, and

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

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

Fortune 1000 {{location map+ , United States , float=right , width=400, relief=1 , caption=''Fortune'' 1000 company headquarters locations. Top 20 companies labeled, places= {{location map~ , United States , lat= 36.365378 , long= -94.217629 , label= Walmart, ...

headquarters – 2021 rankings

Education

Colleges and universities

* Des Moines Area Community College - Des Moines, Ankeny, Boone, Carroll, Newton and West Des Moines *

Drake University Drake University is a private university in Des Moines, Iowa, United States. The University offers over 140 undergraduate and graduate programs, including professional programs in business, education, Legal education, law, and pharmacy. Drake U ...

- Des Moines * Des Moines University - West Des Moines * Faith Baptist Bible College - Ankeny * Grand View University - Des Moines * Mercy College of Health Sciences - Des Moines *

Simpson College Simpson College is a Private college, private United Methodist Church, Methodist college in Indianola, Iowa. It is Higher education accreditation in the United States, accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and enrolled 1,151 students in ...

- Indianola and West Des Moines * Purdue University Global - Urbandale * Upper Iowa University - West Des Moines

Sports

Transportation

Airports

* Des Moines International Airport (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 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 Mexico–Uni ...

* I-80 * I-235 U.S. Highways * US 6

US 6 U.S. Route 6 (US 6) or U.S. Highway 6 (US 6), also called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, honoring the Grand Army of the Republic, American Civil War veterans association, is a main route of the United States Numbere ...

US 65 *

US 69 Iowa Highways * Elongated circle 5

IA 5 *

IA 28 *

IA 141 *

IA 163 *

IA 415

Transit

* Des Moines Area Regional Transit

References

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