City · Story County, Iowa

Ames, Iowa

Ames is a city in Story County, Iowa, part of the Ames, IA metro area. It has 67,669 residents. Ames, Iowa has a quality-of-life score of 79 out of 100 (high), ranking #3,303 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Iowa it ranks #154 of 281 cities and towns. It ranks best on flu vaccinations (high), mammography screening (high) and drought exposure (low). It ranks worst on broadband subscriptions (low), poverty rate (high) and new business applications (low).

79High

Quality-of-life score: #3,303 of 15,651 cities and towns
Iowa: #154 of 281 in IA
Population: 67,669 (2020-2024)
Land area: 28 mi²
Density: 2,399.2 /mi²
FIPS code: 1901855

Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 74 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.

Open in the map

Scores by category

Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.

Safety83#2,683/15,637
Economy24#11,849/15,631
Housing49#7,664/14,977
Health87#2,084/15,609
Healthcare61#6,139/15,650
Environment83#2,679/15,453
Education98#250/15,649
Infrastructure48#8,175/15,650
Community84#2,452/15,651
Leisure & amenities46#8,501/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where Ames, Iowa ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Story County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.

Strengths

Flu vaccinations · high66.0%
100/100Iowa 51.0%United States 44.0%2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteStory County value
Mammography screening · high64.0%
100/100Iowa 57.0%United States 46.0%2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteStory County value
Drought exposure · low0%
98/100Iowa 13%United States 43%Oct 2025–Sep 2026National Drought Mitigation Center (University of Nebraska–Lincoln), USDA and NOAAStory County value
Traffic deaths · low4.2 /100k
98/100Iowa 11.0 /100kUnited States 12.3 /100k2020-2024National Highway Traffic Safety AdministrationProvisional dataStory County value
High school diploma or higher · high97.9%
98/100Iowa 93.3%United States 89.6%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B15003
Average commute time · low15.6 min
98/100Iowa 19.8 minUnited States 26.4 min2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B08013

Weaknesses

Broadband subscriptions · low74.2%
1/100Iowa 88.8%United States 91.0%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B28002
Poverty rate · high25.5%
5/100Iowa 11.2%United States 12.1%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B17001
New business applications · low7.9 /1k
6/100Iowa 10.8 /1kUnited States 16.6 /1k2025U.S. Census BureauStory County value
Primary care shortage · high17.0
9/100Iowa 7.0United States 6.2Oct 2026Health Resources and Services AdministrationStory County value
Income inequality (Gini index) · high0.482
11/100Iowa 0.444United States 0.4832020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B19083
Job growth · low-2.2%
11/100Iowa -0.1%United States 0.1%2026 Q1U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsProvisional dataStory County value

Trends

The largest changes over about five years, next to the country's over the same periods.

Rent-burdened householdsImproving
58.1% (2015-2019) → 50.2% (2020-2024)
−7.9 pts5 yearsCensus table B25070US 49.6% → 51.1%
New homes permittedWorsening
3.1 /1k (2021) → 2.0 /1k (Sep 2025–Aug 2026)
−36%5 yearsUS 5.2 /1k → 4.2 /1k
Rent as share of incomeImproving
36.6% (2015-2019) → 30.1% (2020-2024)
−6.5 pts5 yearsCensus table B25071US 29.8% → 30.6%
Median household incomeImproving
$48,105 (2015-2019) → $60,991 (2020-2024)
+27%5 yearsCensus table B19013US $65,712 → $81,604
Child poverty rateWorsening
8.7% (2015-2019) → 13.3% (2020-2024)
+4.7 pts5 yearsCensus table B17001US 16.8% → 15.5%
Public transit commutersWorsening
9.1% (2015-2019) → 5.5% (2020-2024)
−3.6 pts5 yearsCensus table B08301US 5.0% → 3.2%

What changed in five years

How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.

Over about five years, Ames, Iowa improved on 3 of 15 measures with a comparison and declined on 2. 9 moved within the margin of error and 1 barely changed.

Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing

Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.

Improved3

Rent / income−6.5 points36.6% → 30.1%
Rent burden−7.9 points58.1% → 50.2%
Household income+27%$48,105 → $60,991

Declined2

Child poverty+4.7 points8.7% → 13.3%
Transit use−3.6 points9.1% → 5.5%

All 15 measures

Change of every measure of Ames, Iowa between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Average commute time	16.4 min2015-2019	15.6 min2020-2024	−0.8 min	Within the margin of error	58%
Bachelor's degree or higher	62.7%2015-2019	65.8%2020-2024	+3.1 points	Within the margin of error	52%
Broadband subscriptions	74.8%2015-2019	74.2%2020-2024	−0.6 points	Within the margin of error	7%
Child poverty rate	8.7%2015-2019	13.3%2020-2024	+4.7 points	Declined	21%
Effective property tax rate	1.58%2015-2019	1.39%2020-2024	−0.2 points	Little change	56%
High school diploma or higher	97.7%2015-2019	97.9%2020-2024	+0.2 points	Within the margin of error	35%
Home price to income ratio	4.3×2015-2019	4.5×2020-2024	+0.3×	Within the margin of error	63%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.4952015-2019	0.4832020-2024	−0.013	Within the margin of error	62%
Median household income	$48,1052015-2019	$60,9912020-2024	+27%	Improved	48%
Poverty rate	28.0%2015-2019	25.5%2020-2024	−2.6 points	Within the margin of error	67%
Public transit commuters	9.1%2015-2019	5.5%2020-2024	−3.6 points	Declined	9%
Rent as share of income	36.6%2015-2019	30.1%2020-2024	−6.5 points	Improved	87%
Rent-burdened households	58.1%2015-2019	50.2%2020-2024	−7.9 points	Improved	78%
Unemployment rate	5.8%2015-2019	5.8%2020-2024	+0 points	Within the margin of error	48%
Uninsured residents (under 65)	5.7%2015-2019	4.9%2020-2024	−0.8 points	Within the margin of error	57%

“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.

Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.

Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.

Cities and towns like Ames, Iowa five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of Ames, Iowa in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.

For comparison, Ames, Iowa itself moved +4.4 points in standing on average over the same 10 measures (standings of all places average about zero).

How the ranking works

Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.

Who lives here

Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).

Age and sex

67,669 residents (±39)

Men
Women

80 and over
70–79
60–69

Income

How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.

Household income

25,785 households (±538)

Ames, Iowa
Iowa share

Under $25k20%5,122
$25k–50k22%5,605
$50k–75k18%4,691

Homes

Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.

Owners and renters

25,785 households (±538)

Ames, Iowa
Iowa share

Own42%10,851
Rent58%14,934

No change since 2015–2019 is larger than the margin of error.

Table view

Getting to work

How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.

How people get to work

37,081 workers (±1,022)

Ames, Iowa
Iowa share

Drive alone63%23,193
Carpool7.3%2,721
Public transit5.5%2,043

Jobs and pay

What the largest occupations here pay, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay by metro area, not by county or city. The metro area page lists its largest occupations and lets you look up any job.

Pay in the Ames, IA

Local businesses

Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.

The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Story County, the county holding most of Ames's residents.

Story County has 2,162 employer establishments, 214 for every 10,000 residents (0.86× the US rate of 248; 0.83× Iowa's), with 33,500 paid employees at an average annual pay of $56,261. The Census Bureau also counts 6,149 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 2,162; 6,149 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 214; US 248 · Iowa 259
Paid employees: 33,500
Average annual pay: $56,261; US $68,342

Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Story County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation

Restaurants and other eating places	175	17.3	0.94×About typical	3,860	$18,575	10
Ambulatory health care services	152	15	0.72×Fewer than typical	1,979	$92,181	159
Lessors of real estate	130	12.9	1.04×About typical	504	$52,948	926
Specialty trade contractors	124	12.3	0.79×Fewer than typical	1,208	$75,173	335
Limited-service restaurants	81	8	1.00×About typical	1,529	$18,377	3
Construction of buildings	74	7.3	0.97×About typical	682	$76,054	141
Religious organizations	70	6.9	1.25×About typical	525	$29,150	—
Services to buildings and dwellings	69	6.8	1.01×About typical	557	$38,300	282
Offices of other health practitioners	67	6.6	1.09×About typical	318	$50,903	101
Full-service restaurants	64	6.3	0.82×About typical	1,936	$19,582	3
Building equipment contractors	60	5.9	0.99×About typical	559	$64,812	64
Real estate agents and brokers	54	5.3	1.10×About typical	109	$46,936	110

Rank places for an industry Open Story County

County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 101,021 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.

Federal contracts performed here

In FY2026, an estimated $20.5M of federal contract obligations were for work performed in Ames, Iowa: $303 per resident (US $1,994).

Obligations: $20.5M; +95% vs FY2025
Per resident: $303; US $1,994
Sole-source: 14%; US 30%
Single offer: 5.2%; US 8.8%

A signal is a reason to look closer, not evidence of wrongdoing: most sole-source awards are lawful and justified.

Top buying agencies

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service$16.4M80%
Agricultural Research Service$2.6M13%
Agricultural Marketing Service$1.1M5.3%
Federal Prison System / Bureau of Prisons$191K0.9%
Forest Service$65.4K0.3%
Department of Education$61.2K0.3%
Federal Highway Administration$42.5K0.2%
Department of Veterans Affairs$24.6K0.1%

Top recipients

Spending by fiscal year

4.8MFY2017
6.7MFY2018
8.1MFY2019
19.2MFY2020
5.6MFY2021
5.4MFY2022
4.3MFY2023
6.4M

Top industries (NAICS)

Nonresidential building construction · 2362$10.2M50%
Navigational, measuring, electromedical, and control instruments manufacturing · 3345$1.4M6.9%
Other professional, scientific, and technical services · 5419$1.3M6.5%
Bakeries and tortilla manufacturing · 3118$1.1M5.3%
Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing · 3254$1.1M5.3%
Building equipment contractors · 2382

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 3, 2026, loaded Oct 3, 2026.

How this is estimated

Agencies report each contract action's place of performance as a county and a ZIP code. A ZIP code's money is split among the cities it covers by the share of its land inside each (Census 2020 ZIP code tabulation areas); the part outside city limits stays with the county.

The place of performance is what the contracting agency reports, often the contractor's office rather than where the work happens.
Shares are of land, not of people or businesses: a ZIP code that is mostly rural land but has its offices in town gives the town less than it should.
ZIP codes that are not mapped areas (post office boxes, the unique ZIP codes of large federal sites and companies) stay with their county, unless one city covers nearly all of it.
Counts of actions and awards include those only partly in Ames, Iowa, so they do not add up across cities.

Ames, Iowa's figures are part of those of Story County, IA ($135.7M in FY2026), never added to them: 15% of that total.

Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Ames is mostly in Story County.

See federal money in Story County

Representation in Congress

Members serving today, with their record in the current Congress (party-unity votes cast with their caucus, roll calls missed). Not a grade.

Ames, Iowa is represented in the 119th Congress by these members.

House

Randy FeenstraR-IA-4 · 100% of residentsWith party 97%Missed 1.6%

Senate

Explore Congress The 2026 races

County

A city can lie in several counties. Some indicators are published for counties only: the page marks them.

Story County87100% of residents

Metro area

The metro or micro area the city belongs to.

Ames, IA91

Other cities and towns in Story County

Largest first.

Similar cities and towns

Closest indicator profiles across the country (no model: score distances).

Data and sources

Latest published value of each indicator; periods differ by source. Values flagged by their publisher are marked.

PLACES: Local Data for Better HealthCenters for Disease Control and Prevention · release 2025
Local Area Unemployment StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · release 2025
American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2017-2024
Building Permits SurveyU.S. Census Bureau · release 2026-08
Population Estimates ProgramU.S. Census Bureau · release 2025
Small Area Health Insurance EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
Small Area Income and Poverty EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
County Health Rankings & RoadmapsUniversity of Wisconsin Population Health Institute · release 2022-2025+2026-03-supplement

JSON · /api/v1/places/1901855

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends