How many people need to live in an area for it to be considered a small town?

If you asked this question to 100 people, you're likely to hear all kinds of different answers. I grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and what seems like a small town to me might be completely different than if you asked someone from Independence, Iowa.

When is a town Considered Small?

I spent around 12 years of my adult life in Winona, Minnesota, which has a population of around 25,000 people. For me, that was pretty small compared to where I grew up. If someone grew up in Dyersville, Iowa, which has a population of about 4,500 people, they might think 25,000 people is a budding metropolis. Which would be totally fair by the way! Winona has a little more than 5x more people in it than Dyersville.

While everyone might have their own idea or definition of "small town," the United States Census has defined a small town as "incorporated places that have fewer than 5,000 people."

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If we use a population size of 5,000 people, how many towns in Iowa are considered small? There's a ton of them!

How Many Small Towns Are in Iowa?

According to the United States Census Bureau, from 2022, Iowa has 1,009 "places." 947 of these places are incorporated. 636 of Iowa 947 cities have  5,000 people or less. This means that almost 69% of the cities that make up our state are considered small towns.

If you asked someone who lives in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, or Houston how many small towns they think are in Iowa, they'd probably just say the entire state is a small town!

If we round up, 70% of Iowa is made up of small towns and that's one of my favorite things about Iowa since moving here 2 and half years ago. There are 636 towns with less than 5,000 people and I'd be willing to bet that most people who live outside of the state couldn't find half of them on a map of Iowa.

Our collection of small towns are what make Iowa so great and so unique. Each city has something special about it and makes it different from the rest.

Depending on where you live or where you grew up, what do you consider a small town? Would you have guessed there were this many cities in Iowa with less than 5,000 people in it?

Even people who grew up in Iowa might not be familiar with this list of the smallest populations in Iowa!