Southwest Iowa

SW Iowa

bigpigeon.us webpage History > SW Iowa History > Population Data, © 2023 by Robert A. Christiansen, updated by RAC 18 Oct 2023
Under development October 2023.

The following tables give county and city populations within the 19 Southwest Iowa counties from three censuses:

• 2020 - the most-recent census.
• 1940 - 80 years earlier, just before US participation in World War II.
• 1860 - 80 years earlier, just before the Civil War and the first census in which 18 of the counties existed. Not yet added.

Eight of these counties, namely Pottawattamie, Page, Harrison, Mills, Cass, Shelby, Montgomery & Iowa comprise what I call the Pottawattamie Area,

The 19 Southwest Iowa Counties
Ordered by the year 2020 census count with 1940 counts included. 

County	County Seat	2020	1940	Notes
Pottawattamie	Council Bluffs	93,667	66,756
Carroll	Carroll	20,760	22,770
Crawford	Denison	16,525	20,538
Page	Clarinda	15,211	24,887
Harrison	Logan	14,582	22,767
Mills	Glenwood	14,484	15,064
Cass	Atlantic	13,127	18,647
Union	Creston	12,138	16,280
Shelby	Harlan	11,746	16,720
Guthrie	Guthrie Center	10,623	17,210
Montgomery	Red Oak	10,330	15,697
Greene	Jefferson	8,771	16,599
Monona	Onawa	8,751	18,238
Adair	Greenfield	7,496	13,196
Fremont	Sidney	6,605	14,645
Taylor	Bedford	5,896	14,258
Audubon	Audubon	5,674	11,790
Ringgold	Mount Ayr	4,663	11,137
Adams	Corning	3,704	10,156
Total		286,773	369,295

 

Cities and Unincorporated Census Places in the 19 Southwest Iowa Counties
Ordered by the year 2020 census count with 1940 counts included. 

City	County	2020	1940
Council Bluffs	Pottawattamie	62,799	41,439	P
Carroll	Carroll	10,381	5,389
Denison	Crawford	8,383	4,361
Creston	Union	7,536	8,033
Atlantic	Cass	6,792	5,802	P
Red Oak	Montgomery	5,596	5,762	P
Clarinda	Page	5,369	4,905
Glenwood	Mills	5,073	4,501	P
Shenandoah	Page/Fremont	4,925	6,846
Harlan	Shelby	4,893	3,727	P
Jefferson	Greene	4,182	4,088
Carter Lake	Pottawattamie	3,791	846	P
Onawa	Monona	2,906	3,438
Missouri Valley	Harrison	2,678	3,994	P
Greenfield	Adair	2,062	1,869
Audubon	Audubon	2,053	2,409	P
Stuart	Adair/Guthrie	1,782	1,611
Avoca	Pottawattamie	1,672	1,598	P
Woodbine	Harrison	1,625	1,467
Mount Ayr	Ringgold	1,623	1,940
Guthrie Center	Guthrie	1,593	2,066
Corning	Adams	1,564	2,162
Oakland	Pottawattamie	1,524	1,317	P
Manning	Carroll	1,455	1,748
Logan	Harrison	1,397	1,700	P
Lenox	Taylor/Adams	1,339	1,220
Coon Rapids	Carroll/Guthrie	1,300	1,533
Lake Panorama (uninc.)	Guthrie	1,226
Mapleton	Monona	1,165	1,824
Glidden	Carroll	1,151	941
Villisca	Montgomery	1,132	2,011	P
Panora	Guthrie	1,091	1,169
Sidney	Fremont	1,070	1,290
Malvern	Mills	1,046	1,325	P
Dunlap	Harrison	1,038	1,550	P
Treynor	Pottawattamie	1,032	219	P
Griswold	Cass	994	1,132	P
Anita	Cass	963	1,088	P
Underwood	Pottawattamie	954	251	P
Tabor	Fremont/Mills	928	976	P
Neola	Pottawattamie	918	841	P
Hamburg	Fremont	890	2,187
Schleswig	Crawford	830	626
Afton	Union	874	987
Adair	Adair/Guthrie	791	827
Exira	Audubon	787	1,046	P
Manilla	Crawford	775	1,040
Carson	Pottawattamie	766	613	P
Shelby	Shelby/Pott.	727	627
Essex	Page	722	762
Stanton	Montgomery	678	571	P
Fontanelle	Adair	676	797
Crescent	Pottawattamie	628		P
Elk Horn	Shelby	601	486	P
Minden	Pottawattamie	600	310	P
Charter Oak	Crawford	535	776
Arcadia	Carroll	525	410
Scranton	Greene	511	1,014
Breda	Carroll	500	532
Farragut	Fremont	490	496
Dow City	Crawford	485	642
Bayard	Guthrie	405	702
Emerson	Mills	403	498	P
Earling	Shelby	397	320	P
Casey	Adair/Guthrie	387	709
Lorimor	Union	386	614
New Market	Taylor	385	681
Diamondhead Lake (uninc.)	Guthrie	371
Orient	Adair	368	442
Churdan	Greene	365	677
Massena	Cass	359	479	P
Lewis	Cass	357	557	P
Templeton	Carroll	352	390
Menlo	Guthrie	345	441
Diagonal	Ringgold	344	603
Mondamin	Harrison	339	610	P
Elliott	Montgomery	338	548	P
Irwin	Shelby	319	345	P
Persia	Harrison	297	395	P
Kimballton	Audubon	291	349	P
Westside	Crawford	285	373
Clearfield	Taylor/Ringgold	278	615
Modale	Harrison	273	385	P
Kiron	Crawford	267	260
Macedonia	Pottawattamie	267	329	P
Yale	Guthrie	267	287
Cumberland	Cass	251	578	P
Deloit	Crawford	250	281
Pisgah	Harrison	249	397	P
Defiance	Shelby	245	438	P
Riverton	Fremont	245	543
Silver City	Mills	245	346	P
Kellerton	Ringgold	243	563
Panama	Shelby	235	255	P
Bagley	Guthrie	233	427
Blencoe	Monona	233	367
Dedham	Carroll	224	392
Paton	Greene	221	394
Rippey	Greene	220	421
Hancock	Pottawattamie	200	256	P
Moorhead	Monona	199	421
Jamaica	Guthrie	195	283
Prescott	Adams	191	400
Magnolia	Harrison	190	242	P
Randolph	Fremont	189	379
Sun Valley Lake (uninc.)	Ringgold	187
Soldier	Monona	184	208
Portsmouth	Shelby	182	320	P
Coin	Page	176	457
College Springs	Page	172	430
Thurman	Fremont	167	268
Lidderdale	Carroll	166	208
Little Sioux	Harrison	166	434	P
Shambaugh	Page	159	269
Gravity	Taylor	154	514
Mineola (uninc.)	Mills	154		P
Hastings	Mills	152	403	P
Bridgewater	Adair	148	302
Braddyville	Page	147	202
McClelland	Pottawattamie	146	165	P
Henderson	Mills	144	217	P
Brayton	Audubon	143	217	P
Tingley	Ringgold	136	390
Westphalia	Shelby	126	126	P
Blockton	Taylor	125	488
Lanesboro	Carroll	119	209
Marne	Cass	110	245	P
Ricketts	Crawford	109	167
Castana	Monona	107	336
Cromwell	Union	105	165
Arion	Crawford	97	271
Pacific Jct.	Mills	96	558	P6
Arispe	Union	94	149
Bentley (uninc.)	Pottawattamie	93		P0
Wiota	Cass	91	246	P1
Grant	Montgomery	85	231	-
Ralston	Carroll/Greene	81	214
Tennant	Shelby	80	109	P0
Weston (uninc.)	Pottawattamie	78		P0
California Jct. (uninc.)	Harrison	74		-
Nodaway	Adams	73	270
Shannon City	Union/Ringgold	73	288
Sharpsburg	Taylor	72	173
Turin	Monona	70	184
Kirkman	Shelby	66	185	2, 1 IP
Gray	Audubon	63	182	1, I IP
Redding	Ringgold	63	246
Yorktown	Page	60	197
Percival (uninc.)	Fremont	53
Northboro	Page	52	182
Thayer	Union	51	157
Rodney	Monona	45	131
River Sioux (uninc.)	Harrison	42		P0
Benton	Ringgold	39	189
Dana	Greene	38	153
Anderson (uninc.)	Fremont	37
Imogene	Fremont	37	280
Kent (uninc.)	Union	37
Loveland (uninc.)	Pottawattamie	36		P1
Aspinwall	Crawford	34	88
Carbon	Adams	31	383
Corley (uninc.)	Shelby	31		P0
Buck Grove	Crawford	30	194
Blanchard	Page	29	259
Jacksonville (uninc.)	Shelby	29		P1
Coburg	Montgomery	28	162	P0
Delphos (uninc.)	Ringgold	26	90
Hepburn	Page	26	81
Ellston	Ringgold	22	195
Maloy	Ringgold	22	95
Conway	Taylor	16	246
Beaconsfield	Ringgold	15	148
Athelstan (uninc.)	Taylor	6

 

 Notes for the above table:

• This table lists the current incorporated cities and unincorporated census designated places in these 19 counties. Other unincorporated communities lack population data and are excluded, even though, like Honey Creek,  they might appear on the previous map.
• 1940 population counts and the final column are included for use with Big Pigeon's Pottawattamie Area WWII Dead Roster project.

Sources:

• https://www.iowadatacenter.org/index.php/data-by-source/decennial-census/total-population-population-density-and-land-area
  
• https://www.iowadatacenter.org/datatables/PlacesAll/plpopulation18502000.pdf
  
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Iowa
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_census-designated_places_in_Iowa