Iowa's population is 61% urban. Does this surprise you?

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

YES!  Wouldn't have thought that in a million years. 

[angus]

Iowa's population is 61% urban. Does this surprise you?

not really.  I lived in Iowa for five years and I noticed a few inhabited spots in the country.  Not many, but a few, so I'd have expected it to have a non-zero rural population.  39% seems a tad high.  I'd have guessed maybe a third or a even a quarter, but it's not as if I've driven all over the state.  In the part of Iowa where I lived, it seemed that nearly everyone was urban.  You could drive for 20 miles between cities and count the number of houses on the fingers of one hand.

I think your surprise stems from the fact that you're an Easterner.  I've spent a good deal of my life in the East.  Back here, you really don't find those long, lonesome stretches.  When you're in the Eastern country, you still pass house after house, so if you have never been out West it's hard to imagine a land where the population density is very low.  Wyoming is lower still.  On the other hand, a Chinese person's idea of "country" is different as well.  You can have a density of 2000 people per square mile (what we think of as suburban or even urban) and in China that's considered very country.  It's all relative.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Not too surprised, given that "urban" is a fairly loose term.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Iowa's population is 61% urban. Does this surprise you?

not really.  I lived in Iowa for five years and I noticed a few inhabited spots in the country.  Not many, but a few, so I'd have expected it to have a non-zero rural population.  39% seems a tad high.  I'd have guessed maybe a third or a even a quarter, but it's not as if I've driven all over the state.  In the part of Iowa where I lived, it seemed that nearly everyone was urban.  You could drive for 20 miles between cities and count the number of houses on the fingers of one hand.

I think your surprise stems from the fact that you're an Easterner.  I've spent a good deal of my life in the East.  Back here, you really don't find those long, lonesome stretches.  When you're in the Eastern country, you still pass house after house, so if you have never been out West it's hard to imagine a land where the population density is very low.  Wyoming is lower still.  On the other hand, a Chinese person's idea of "country" is different as well.  You can have a density of 2000 people per square mile (what we think of as suburban or even urban) and in China that's considered very country.  It's all relative.

I'm well aware.  Alaska is technically very urban.  It's probably more to do with the nondescript nature of Iowa.  You just don't hear about it all that much, and when you do it's about the farming industry.  Guess all those smaller cities add up big time. 

[angus]

Not too surprised, given that "urban" is a fairly loose term.

I don't think so.  At least not if the figure is from a site that quotes a U.S. Census bureau's numbers.  We may waste a huge amount of money on taxes, but one thing we're pretty good at is coming up with exact legal definitions.  There's a very tight, very bureaucratic, people per square land unit definition of "urban" set up by the government and Hockey's number is likely from that.

I noticed long ago in my travels that there are places where large numbers of people actually do live in the country.  Often such places are in other countries.  Iowa never struck me as such a place.  The first time I ever drove through Iowa was about 15 years ago, when I was moving from Boston to the SF Bay area, and all the way through the state all I noticed was cornfields.  No people, no houses, except in cities, and those cities were very far apart.  I'd have guess less than 39% were rural, but as I said I have never driven on every road in the state.  

[Ban my account ffs!]

well, Iowa is the quintessential midwestern state, complete with numerous small cities that are surprisingly cosmopolitan and laid back.  It is basically an extension of SW Wisconsin and southern Minnesota.

[angus]

laid back.

*very* laid back.  That's one thing I miss about the upper midwest.  I don't miss the climate, and I don't miss the lack of cultural diversity, but I have to admit that I do miss the "mind your own business and I'll mind mine" attitude. 

Not like that in the East.  Everyone here wears a suit and everyone is fast and everyone is ready to sue one another over just about anything.

Oh, and everyone back East calls each other "sir."  How annoying is that?  But then you have already learned about that in another thread. 

[HoosierPoliticalJunkie]

Oh, and everyone back East calls each other "sir."  How annoying is that?  But then you have already learned about that in another thread. 

I live in Indiana and we only use "Sir" in a courtroom.  I'm amazed when people call their parents "Sir" and "Ma'am".  Everyone here just uses Mom and Dad.

[Torie]

The farms are big, and their influence on the population is de minimus. Madison County, the county with the family farm, has maybe 500 farmers max. Iowa makes its living on insurance/financial services in Des Moines, and manufacturing usually related to agriculture, and its share of the federal bureaucracy  (e.g., Des Moines has a major IRS office, involved in chasing down deadbeats and non tax return filers).

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

No (Has actually been to Iowa and understands what the state is actually like and doesn't assume based on stereotypes)

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

No.  Most of this country is urbanized, sadly - even the states we'd normally consider rural.

I don't know a lot about Iowa's demographics, but I believe urban agriculture is fairly popular there.

[traininthedistance]

You know what's way more surprising?

Yep.  All alone in the Midwest.  (I'm sure you all know what this is a map of.)

[traininthedistance]

But seriously, this entire country is very very urban at this point (especially if you're including all the suburbs and horrible exurbs, as one should).  I wonder if any state is more than 50 percent rural at this point.  Wyoming?  The Dakotas?  Mississippi?  West Virginia?  I'd frankly be shocked if there were any besides those five- and maybe not even those five.

EDIT: Forgot about Vermont- okay, six.

[DINGO Joe]

My Grandfather's farm was 80 acres (and actually he made most of his living hauling hogs and cattle.  My kin that still farms has 800 acres and many are bigger.  If it was just farms, the population would be like Wyoming.

It is a very literate state and plenty of tech and white collar jobs in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids-Iowa City, and Dubuque.  Farm manufacturing in Waterloo and the Quad Cities.

Rural areas have had to deal with their share of meth heads.  Tom Arnold's sister was once the drug kingpin of southern Iowa/North Missouri.  All in all still a fine place even if the food is bland and the music non-existent.

[Mechaman]

Just looked up the information of states less than 50% urban.  Get ready, lol:

Maine: 38.7%
Mississippi: 49.3%
Vermont: 38.9%
West Virginia: 48.7%

[MaxQue]

But seriously, this entire country is very very urban at this point (especially if you're including all the suburbs and horrible exurbs, as one should).  I wonder if any state is more than 50 percent rural at this point.  Wyoming?  The Dakotas?  Mississippi?  West Virginia?  I'd frankly be shocked if there were any besides those five- and maybe not even those five.

EDIT: Forgot about Vermont- okay, six.

Still missed the most rural state of the USA; Maine.

[angus]

You know what's way more surprising?
Yep.  All alone in the Midwest.  (I'm sure you all know what this is a map of.)

That's not really surprising.  In Iowa it happened like in Massachusetts.  It was a court case.  Not like in those states where people actually democratically decided the thing.  And the court case started in Johnson County.  That's where Captain Kirk was from.  (Actually, Kirk was born in adjacent Washington County, but it's close enough.)

The only surprising thing about Iowa is what Jack Kerouac says:  "Iowa has the prettiest girls in the world."  But that's only surprising at first.  Then you remember that Kerouac lived during the 40s and 50s, when the standard of beauty was busty, Germanic, blonde cheesecake.  This was all before the time of dark tanning, exotic foreign models, and rail-thin supermodels.  If curvaceous and pale is your thing, you'll love Iowa women. 

[opebo]

You know what's way more surprising?

Yep.  All alone in the Midwest.  (I'm sure you all know what this is a map of.)

Democrat share of the Honky vote?

As for the urbanization, I would have thought it was more urbanized than 61%.

[angus]

As for the urbanization, I would have thought it was more urbanized than 61%.

It does seem just a tad low, doesn't it?  I googled it and the 61% comes from Census 2000 numbers, so it's official, but dated.

Iowadatacenter.org gives 64% as the 2010 Census number, and 66% as the 2013 estimate.  66% seems reasonable, based on my experiences.  

The only places where I've spent any time that struck me as very rural are New England, where I lived for five years, and Mississippi, where I lived for three years.  There's actually a post in here with figures that support that contention.  The general trend, every year since the Census started collecting in 1790, has been from rural to urban.  Even those New England states may be more urban than rural in the next census.  

[memphis]

How are we defining urban? Hopefully not just living in a county that is part of a metro area. Because those counties go on forever beyond a city.

[traininthedistance]

You know what's way more surprising?
Yep.  All alone in the Midwest.  (I'm sure you all know what this is a map of.)

That's not really surprising.  In Iowa it happened like in Massachusetts.  It was a court case.  Not like in those states where people actually democratically decided the thing.  And the court case started in Johnson County.  That's where Captain Kirk was from.  (Actually, Kirk was born in adjacent Washington County, but it's close enough.)

The only surprising thing about Iowa is what Jack Kerouac says:  "Iowa has the prettiest girls in the world."  But that's only surprising at first.  Then you remember that Kerouac lived during the 40s and 50s, when the standard of beauty was busty, Germanic, blonde cheesecake.  This was all before the time of dark tanning, exotic foreign models, and rail-thin supermodels.  If curvaceous and pale is your thing, you'll love Iowa women. 

No, actually, opebo has it right.  That's a map of the white vote in 2012.  Though, the fact that Iowa was the first midwestern state to approve gay marriage is of course less surprising when you realize they were also the only midwestern state to vote for Obama over Romney (judges or no judges).

[Napoleon]

You know what's way more surprising?
Yep.  All alone in the Midwest.  (I'm sure you all know what this is a map of.)

That's not really surprising.  In Iowa it happened like in Massachusetts.  It was a court case.  Not like in those states where people actually democratically decided the thing.  And the court case started in Johnson County.  That's where Captain Kirk was from.  (Actually, Kirk was born in adjacent Washington County, but it's close enough.)

The only surprising thing about Iowa is what Jack Kerouac says:  "Iowa has the prettiest girls in the world."  But that's only surprising at first.  Then you remember that Kerouac lived during the 40s and 50s, when the standard of beauty was busty, Germanic, blonde cheesecake.  This was all before the time of dark tanning, exotic foreign models, and rail-thin supermodels.  If curvaceous and pale is your thing, you'll love Iowa women. 

No, actually, opebo has it right.  That's a map of the white vote in 2012.  Though, the fact that Iowa was the first midwestern state to approve gay marriage is of course less surprising when you realize they were also the only midwestern state to vote for Obama over Romney (judges or no judges).

The strong correlation between legalized gay marriage and white liberals can hardly be considered a surprise though.

[traininthedistance]

You know what's way more surprising?
Yep.  All alone in the Midwest.  (I'm sure you all know what this is a map of.)

That's not really surprising.  In Iowa it happened like in Massachusetts.  It was a court case.  Not like in those states where people actually democratically decided the thing.  And the court case started in Johnson County.  That's where Captain Kirk was from.  (Actually, Kirk was born in adjacent Washington County, but it's close enough.)

The only surprising thing about Iowa is what Jack Kerouac says:  "Iowa has the prettiest girls in the world."  But that's only surprising at first.  Then you remember that Kerouac lived during the 40s and 50s, when the standard of beauty was busty, Germanic, blonde cheesecake.  This was all before the time of dark tanning, exotic foreign models, and rail-thin supermodels.  If curvaceous and pale is your thing, you'll love Iowa women. 

No, actually, opebo has it right.  That's a map of the white vote in 2012.  Though, the fact that Iowa was the first midwestern state to approve gay marriage is of course less surprising when you realize they were also the only midwestern state to vote for Obama over Romney (judges or no judges).

The strong correlation between legalized gay marriage and white liberals can hardly be considered a surprise though.

Yes, that's exactly my point.  People were surprised that Iowa was the first Midwest state to legalize gay marriage, but it's not surprising when you realize that the white voters of Iowa are in fact the most liberal white voters outside of the coasts!

[angus]

the white voters of Iowa are the most liberal

I think rather that the converse is true:  the liberal voters of Iowa are the most white. 

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

If you can't understand why Iowa has such a high proportion of white liberal voters, then you probably are thinking of "white liberals" as exclusively as like the stereotypical resident of San Francisco or like hippie organic farmers. If you interviewed a bunch of people in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids or Davenport about gay marriage, tax rates, health care, the environment and marijuana, and then a bunch of people somewhere like southeast Minneapolis/southwest St. Paul or Madison, WI, you'd find that the views expressed would be pretty similar. The Iowa cities might have more conservatives in general, but the median voter is going to be someone with generally liberal views on all those issues.

(I didn't mention Iowa City because that's actually closer to San Francisco or west central Minneapolis.)