Iowa Counties Map: Click All 99 Counties

How many counties are in Iowa?

Iowa has 99 counties. Seven states have more, and 42 have fewer.

Iowa has 99 counties, most of them neat rectangles laid out by surveyors in the 1800s. Polk County, home to Des Moines, has the most people. Two rivers frame the state: the Mississippi on the east and the Missouri on the west.

How Iowa's counties were formed

Iowa's first two counties, Dubuque and Demoine, were created in 1834, when the land was attached to the Michigan Territory. Surveyors then laid out most of the state in a grid, which is why so many Iowa counties are near-perfect squares about 24 miles on a side. The northwest corner was settled last: Lyon County's lines were drawn in 1851 under the name Buncombe, it was renamed in 1862, and it was not organized with its own government until 1872.

Iowa regions and the counties in each

Iowa's landscape helps place counties. The Driftless Area in the northeast, which glaciers missed, has bluffs and valleys in Allamakee, Clayton and Winneshiek counties. The Loess Hills, ridges of windblown soil, run along the Missouri River in Harrison, Monona and Pottawattamie counties. The Des Moines Lobe, the flattest part of the state, reaches from the Minnesota line down to Polk County. The Mississippi River counties of the east include Dubuque, Scott, Muscatine, Des Moines and Lee.

Notable places on the Iowa county map

Hawkeye Point, the state's highest point at 1,670 feet, is on a farm in Osceola County, and the lowest point is at Keokuk in Lee County, where the Des Moines River meets the Mississippi. Effigy Mounds National Monument, with mounds shaped like bears and birds, is in Allamakee and Clayton counties. The Field of Dreams movie site is near Dyersville in Dubuque County.

Iowa counties map: the biggest and smallest

Kossuth County is the largest county in Iowa, with 973 square miles of land, about 2% of the state. Dickinson County is the smallest, at 381 square miles.

The smallest counties by land area are Dickinson County (381 sq mi), Emmet County (396 sq mi) and Osceola County (399 sq mi).

Which counties in Iowa have the most people?

Polk County has the most people, about 516,185 in the Census Bureau's July 2024 estimate, or 16% of everyone in Iowa. The three biggest counties together hold 28% of the state's 3,241,488 people. Adams County has the fewest, about 3,606.

The most crowded is Polk County, with about 902 people per square mile. The emptiest is Adams County, with about 9 people per square mile. Comparing the two is a quick way to show children that a big county on the map isn't always a big county in people.

What county is Des Moines in?

Des Moines, the capital of Iowa, is in Polk County. It's also the county with the most people. Iowa is called the Hawkeye State, and it became the 29th state in 1846.

Counties on the Iowa border

Learning the edge of the map first gives children a frame to fill in. Iowa shares a border with Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

How Iowa's counties compare with other states

Iowa ranks 23rd among the 50 states in land area and 32nd in population. Its average county covers about 564 square miles and holds about 32,742 people. Across the 50 states, the average county-level area covers about 1,139 square miles and holds about 109,381 people, so Iowa's counties are smaller than usual in size. Small counties pack more names into the same space, so zooming in helps.

Landmarks for learning the counties of Iowa

• Polk County (Des Moines) sits near the center of the state.
• Scott County (Davenport) and Dubuque County line the Mississippi on the east.
• Pottawattamie and Woodbury counties sit on the Missouri River in the west.

With 99 counties, work one region at a time: study it with names on, then take a Practice round and stop when you've found that group. Then print the Iowa county map worksheet to check that it sticks on paper.

All 99 Iowa counties

Every county on the map, A to Z, with its land area and July 2024 population estimate.

Iowa geography for homeschoolers

Pair this map with the Midwest states and capitals quiz and the US states quiz. If you teach at home, see homeschooling in iowa, and check iowa school choice program to see whether a program may help pay for Iowa history and geography curriculum. Each program decides what it covers.