The 10 Cities In Iowa With The Highest Divorce Rates For 2023


The cities in Iowa with the highest divorce rate are Oelwein and Anamosa for 2023 based on Saturday Night Science.

Cities with highest divorce rate in Iowa research summary. We analyzed Iowa’s most recent Census data to determine the divorce rate for each city in Iowa based on the percentage of currently divorced residents. Here are the results of our analysis:

  • The city with the highest divorce rate in Iowa is Oelwein based on the most recent Census data.

  • Oelwein is 16.0% Divorced.

  • The city with the lowest divorce rate in Iowa is Storm Lake.

  • Storm Lake is 2.0% Divorced.

  • Iowa is 7.000000000000001% Divorced.


Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table


There are some 178,029 people living in Iowa over fifteen years of age who are divorced. You can compare that to the 28,339,199 Americans who are currently divorced in 2023.

Many people decide to run away – or split up – across the Hawkeye State.

Isn’t the divorce rate in America close to 50%? Yes indeed. But we’re measuring something else; we are looking at counts and percentages of people over 15 years old who are currently divorced. That 50% statistic is for the percentage of people who have ever been divorced.

For today’s analysis, the focus will be on the number of currently divorced people.

So now that we have you biting your nails, rethinking your worldview, and pulling out your hair, let’s look at the places in Iowa with the highest rates of divorcees.

The 10 Cities In Iowa With The Highest Divorce Rates

  1. Oelwein
  2. Anamosa
  3. Perry
  4. Fort Dodge
  5. Osceola
  6. Clear Lake
  7. Boone
  8. Atlantic
  9. Webster City
  10. Newton

Let’s quickly recap before we dive into the Saturday Night Science behind the data.

What is the city in Iowa with the highest divorce rate? That would be Oelwein, with 16.0% of people over 15 years of age being divorced, per the most recent census data.

What is the overall Iowa divorce rate? According to the 2017-2021 Community Survey, the overall divorce rate in Iowa is 7.000000000000001%, which compares to the US divorce rate of 10.9%.

Alrighty, on to how we calculated the places with the highest divorce rates in Iowa.

For more Iowa reading, check out:

The 10 Places With The Highest Divorce Rate In Iowa For 2023

Oelwein, IA

Source: Flickr User JCHaywire | CC BY-SA 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 5,961
Divorce Rate: 16.0%
Divorcees: 763
Median Income: $38,325
More on Oelwein: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Anamosa, IA

Source: Wikipedia User Shabbytrick | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 5,332
Divorce Rate: 13.0%
Divorcees: 554
Median Income: $48,750
More on Anamosa: Data | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Perry, IA

Source: Wikipedia User Richc80 | CC BY 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 7,836
Divorce Rate: 13.0%
Divorcees: 814
Median Income: $53,283
More on Perry: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Fort Dodge, IA

Source: Wikipedia User Bill Whittaker (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 24,826
Divorce Rate: 12.0%
Divorcees: 2,383
Median Income: $50,409
More on Fort Dodge: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Osceola, IA

Source: Wikipedia User en:User:Cburnett | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 5,412
Divorce Rate: 12.0%
Divorcees: 519
Median Income: $55,149
More on Osceola: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Clear Lake, IA

Source: Wikipedia User Bill Whittaker (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 7,673
Divorce Rate: 12.0%
Divorcees: 736
Median Income: $61,036
More on Clear Lake: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Boone, IA

Source: Wikipedia User Dan Breyfogle | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 12,509
Divorce Rate: 12.0%
Divorcees: 1,200
Median Income: $61,997
More on Boone: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Atlantic, IA

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 6,795
Divorce Rate: 11.0%
Divorcees: 597
Median Income: $50,227
More on Atlantic: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Webster City, IA

Source: Wikipedia User Ann Sullivan-Larson | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 7,825
Divorce Rate: 11.0%
Divorcees: 688
Median Income: $54,413
More on Webster City: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Newton, IA

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 15,688
Divorce Rate: 11.0%
Divorcees: 1,380
Median Income: $51,026
More on Newton: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

How We Determined The Places In Iowa That Get Un-Hitched The Most

Since this is the 58th category of rankings we are compiling for the site, we had a pretty good idea of where to find data on marriage and divorce in America — the U.S. Census Bureau. Because who likes tracking misery more than the U.S. government?

Specifically, we looked at the 2017-2021 American Community Survey table S1201 — Marital Status.

Pretty straightforward on that front — we just had to extract the following column of data:

  • Population 15 Years and Over -> Divorced

There are some interesting/fun/sad data like .1% of female Americans aged 15-19 are divorced, but 0% of males (That’s probably a rounding issue, but still).

But the national data is for another day. Today, the analysis focuses on the 83 places in Iowa with a population of over 5,000.

We ranked each place by the percentage of divorcees over 15 years of age from highest to lowest. We crowned the divorce capital of Iowa the place with the highest incidence of divorcees, Oelwein.

And if you’re trying to avoid divorce, check out Storm Lake, the city with the lowest divorce rate in Iowa.

We updated this article for 2023 and this is our fifth time ranking the cities in Iowa with the highest divorce rates.

Getting Some Closure In Iowa After Untying The Know

Besides just coming up with what we thought would be a great new blog/book title, “Untying the Knot In Iowa: Life After Divorce,” we now have a sense of what places in the Hawkeye State don’t pay much attention to the whole “’til death do we part” phrase.

Try to keep in mind that the reason cities rank where they do in Iowa could be because of the age, education, and income distribution, as all of those things impact the rate of divorce.

And that’s probably for the best. Getting out of a toxic relationship is much better than staying in it.

Just make sure you have your running shoes ready to go.

For more Iowa reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Cities With The Highest Divorce Rates In Iowa

Rank City Divorce Rate
1 Oelwein, IA 16.0%
2 Anamosa, IA 13.0%
3 Perry, IA 13.0%
4 Fort Dodge, IA 12.0%
5 Osceola, IA 12.0%
6 Clear Lake, IA 12.0%
7 Boone, IA 12.0%
8 Atlantic, IA 11.0%
9 Webster City, IA 11.0%
10 Newton, IA 11.0%
11 Altoona, IA 11.0%
12 Burlington, IA 11.0%
13 Nevada, IA 11.0%
14 Ottumwa, IA 11.0%
15 Keokuk, IA 11.0%
16 Creston, IA 11.0%
17 Norwalk, IA 11.0%
18 Washington, IA 11.0%
19 Grimes, IA 10.0%
20 Independence, IA 10.0%
21 Knoxville, IA 10.0%
22 Maquoketa, IA 10.0%
23 Cherokee, IA 10.0%
24 Clinton, IA 10.0%
25 Pleasant Hill, IA 9.0%
26 Manchester, IA 9.0%
27 Fort Madison, IA 9.0%
28 Marion, IA 9.0%
29 Grinnell, IA 9.0%
30 Mason City, IA 9.0%
31 Glenwood, IA 9.0%
32 Muscatine, IA 9.0%
33 Winterset, IA 9.0%
34 Eldridge, IA 9.0%
35 Estherville, IA 9.0%
36 Algona, IA 9.0%
37 Bondurant, IA 9.0%
38 Carroll, IA 9.0%
39 Centerville, IA 9.0%
40 Charles City, IA 9.0%
41 Spirit Lake, IA 9.0%
42 Oskaloosa, IA 9.0%
43 Cedar Rapids, IA 8.0%
44 Des Moines, IA 8.0%
45 Waterloo, IA 8.0%
46 Windsor Heights, IA 8.0%
47 Hiawatha, IA 8.0%
48 Spencer, IA 8.0%
49 Clarinda, IA 8.0%
50 Indianola, IA 8.0%
51 Council Bluffs, IA 8.0%
52 Red Oak, IA 8.0%
53 Fairfield, IA 8.0%
54 Marshalltown, IA 7.0%
55 Mount Pleasant, IA 7.0%
56 Davenport, IA 7.0%
57 Sioux City, IA 7.0%
58 Bettendorf, IA 7.0%
59 West Des Moines, IA 7.0%
60 Dubuque, IA 7.0%
61 Iowa Falls, IA 7.0%
62 Waukee, IA 6.0%
63 Adel, IA 6.0%
64 Ankeny, IA 6.0%
65 Johnston, IA 6.0%
66 Coralville, IA 5.0%
67 Le Mars, IA 5.0%
68 Polk City, IA 5.0%
69 Waverly, IA 5.0%
70 Clive, IA 5.0%
71 Orange City, IA 5.0%
72 Urbandale, IA 5.0%
73 Asbury, IA 4.0%
74 Cedar Falls, IA 4.0%
75 Pella, IA 4.0%
76 Decorah, IA 4.0%
77 Denison, IA 4.0%
78 Sioux Center, IA 4.0%
79 North Liberty, IA 4.0%
80 Iowa City, IA 3.0%
81 Sheldon, IA 2.0%
82 Ames, IA 2.0%
83 Storm Lake, IA 2.0%