New Sharon is a city in Mahaska County, Iowa, part of the Oskaloosa, IA metro area. It has 1,180 residents. New Sharon, Iowa has a quality-of-life score of 78 out of 100 (high), ranking #3,496 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Iowa it ranks #159 of 281 cities and towns. It ranks best on social associations (high), job growth (high) and average commute time (low). It ranks worst on pharmacies (low), mental health care shortage (high) and new business applications (low).
78High
Quality-of-life score
#3,496 of 15,651 cities and towns
Iowa
#159 of 281 in IA
Population
1,180 (2020-2024)
Land area
1 mi²
Density
1,256.2 /mi²
FIPS code
1956460
Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 74 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.
Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.
Safety63#5,827/15,637
Economy45#8,597/15,631
Housing88#1,865/14,977
Health63#5,741/15,609
Healthcare46#8,385/15,650
Environment80#3,036/15,453
Education62#5,926/15,649
Infrastructure87#2,074/15,650
Community73#4,235/15,651
Leisure & amenities48#8,191/15,651
Strengths · Weaknesses
Indicators where New Sharon, Iowa ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Mahaska 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.
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.
Cities and towns like New Sharon, Iowa five years ago that improved
The places whose measures looked most like those of New Sharon, 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.
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).
Income
How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.
Homes
Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.
Getting to work
How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.
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.
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.
Federal contracts performed here
Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: New Sharon is mostly in Mahaska County.
Over about five years, New Sharon, Iowa improved on 1 of 12 measures with a comparison and declined on 0. 11 moved within the margin of error and 0 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.
Improved1
Broadband+10 points84.9% → 95.2%
Broadband subscriptions
84.9% → 95.2%2015-2019 → 2020-2024
+10 pointsBeyond the margin of error (±5.5 points)
Standing among cities and towns: 62 → 77 (0 lowest, 100 highest)
More favourable than 61% of cities and towns
Declined0
No measure declined by more than its margin of error.
All 12 measures
Change of every measure of New Sharon, Iowa between two periods about five years apart
Measure
Before
After
Change
Reading
Favourable vs peers
Average commute time
20.1 min2015-2019
18.6 min2020-2024
−1.5 min
Within the margin of error
65%
Bachelor's degree or higher
23.5%2015-2019
21.0%2020-2024
−2.5 points
Within the margin of error
15%
Broadband subscriptions
84.9%2015-2019
95.2%2020-2024
+10 points
Improved
61%
Effective property tax rate
1.35%2015-2019
1.19%2020-2024
−0.2 points
Within the margin of error
49%
High school diploma or higher
94.8%2015-2019
93.2%2020-2024
−1.6 points
Within the margin of error
18%
Home price to income ratio
1.7×2015-2019
2.7×2020-2024
+1.0×
Within the margin of error
21%
Income inequality (Gini index)
0.4132015-2019
0.4572020-2024
+0.043
Within the margin of error
20%
Median household income
$65,3412015-2019
$48,7502020-2024
−25%
Within the margin of error
1%
Poverty rate
10.4%2015-2019
14.4%2020-2024
+4.1 points
Within the margin of error
16%
Public transit commuters
0.0%2015-2019
0.0%2020-2024
0 points
Within the margin of error
60%
Rent as share of income
31.3%2015-2019
24.9%2020-2024
−6.4 points
Within the margin of error
87%
Rent-burdened households
58.3%2015-2019
45.0%2020-2024
−13 points
Within the margin of error
87%
“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.
For comparison, New Sharon, Iowa itself moved −2.6 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.
New Sharon, Iowa is represented in the 119th Congress by these members.
The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Mahaska County, the county holding most of New Sharon's residents.
Mahaska County has 538 employer establishments, 245 for every 10,000 residents (0.99× the US rate of 248; 0.95× Iowa's), with 7,582 paid employees at an average annual pay of $56,601. The Census Bureau also counts 1,481 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.
Establishments
538
1,481 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents
245
US 248 · Iowa 259
Paid employees
7,582
Average annual pay
$56,601
US $68,342
Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Mahaska County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation
County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)
Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 21,947 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.
