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Place dossier plate
SheetIA-SPIRIT-LAKE-IA · Spirit Lake, IA 5,469 pop · income 54th pct · 6 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Spirit Lake
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Spirit Lake on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Algona · lowest
52,542
Algona · lowest
52,542 median HH income
53.3% of the leader · rank #1
McDonald · near
73,625
McDonald · near
73,625 median HH income
74.6% of the leader · rank #2
Port Edwards · near
73,625
Port Edwards · near
73,625 median HH income
74.6% of the leader · rank #3
Spirit Lake · this city
73,627
Spirit Lake · this city
73,627 median HH income
74.6% of the leader · rank #4
North River S… · near
73,635
North River S… · near
73,635 median HH income
74.6% of the leader · rank #5
Whitesboro · near
73,638
Whitesboro · near
73,638 median HH income
74.6% of the leader · rank #6
St. Paul Park · highest
98,670
St. Paul Park · highest
98,670 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Spirit Lake on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 5,469.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Spirit Lake - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Spirit Lake places in the 54th percentile for household income and the 39th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
54th
percentile, household income
48th
percentile, home value
11th
percentile, median rent
39th
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Spirit Lake, IA
Spirit Lake is a small town in Iowa, home to 5,469 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Spirit Lake households earn a median of $73,627 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 2.5%. Spirit Lake's housing stock carries a median value of $218,400, and the median resident age is 40.6 years. About 32.0% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 66.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 49 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Growing), up 14% from five years earlier. Spirit Lake reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1727.6 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 45.7°F with 29.1 inches of precipitation per year and 41.5 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in Iowa run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Iowa scores 87.8 (Well Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $989 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $212 across Iowa, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 39.7 out of 100 (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Spirit Lake's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from within-city variation to climate and hazard context to reported crime to comparison shortlist to housing and income to work and mobility to population change to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Spirit Lake, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Within-city variation
What can 6 Census tracts reveal inside Spirit Lake?
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
What physical conditions frame life in Spirit Lake?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 45.7°F, with 29.1 inches of precipitation and 41.5 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Iowa is 39.7 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Spirit Lake?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1727.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 24% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Which cities make useful reference points for Spirit Lake?
Within Iowa, the closest population matches are Osceola (5,495 residents, $62,363 income); Algona (5,414 residents, $52,542 income); DeWitt (5,535 residents, $84,474 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Floral, FL (5,467 residents); Prairie du Chien, WI (5,471 residents); Malone, NY (5,466 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Spirit Lake?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 2.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
Household income
$73,627
Home value
$218,400
Value / income
3.0×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the journey to work look like in Spirit Lake?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 79.4%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
10.2%
Drive alone
79.4%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,844 workers age 16+.
Is Spirit Lake growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +60 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 49 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+1.1%
2025 estimate
5,525
2020 estimate
5,465
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the education layer cover for Spirit Lake?
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 32.0% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
Matched public schools
3
Bachelor's degree+
32.0%
Poverty estimate
2.5%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living A+
87.8 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Poverty rate A-
2.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share C+
32.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C-
$73,627
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
342 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Spirit Lake profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 94/100 (A+) · 87.8 index
Poverty rate: 82/100 (A-) · 2.5%
Bachelor's+ share: 61/100 (C+) · 32.0%
Household income: 53/100 (C-) · $73,627
Violent crime: 27/100 (F) · 342 /100k
Where Spirit Lake sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Spirit Lake's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Spirit Lake highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Spirit Lake, IA (this city): home $218,400, crime 1,728/100k
St. Paul Park, MN : home $252,800, crime 1,148/100k
Coraopolis, PA : home $151,500, crime 1,326/100k
Osceola, IA : home $145,300, crime 2,208/100k
Algona, IA : home $156,200, crime 227/100k
DeWitt, IA : home $223,100, crime 1,248/100k
Red Oak, IA : home $91,600, crime 1,218/100k
Sheldon, IA : home $173,600, crime 982/100k
Anamosa, IA : home $164,900, crime 674/100k
How does Spirit Lake compare to other US cities?
Spirit Lake measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income54% higher than other cities
Home value48% pricier than other cities
Median rent11% pricier than other cities
Safety39% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Iowa and the picture shifts: Spirit Lake ranks #106 of 141 Iowa cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Spirit Lake against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Iowa only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Iowa-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Spirit Lake near the bottom of Iowa's cities
Among the 858 Iowa cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Spirit Lake ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Spirit Lake only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#263 of 845
69th percentile in Iowa
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 858
0th percentile in Iowa
Median Home Value
#106 of 849
88th percentile in Iowa
Poverty Rate
#647 of 858
24th percentile in Iowa
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#105 of 858
88th percentile in Iowa
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Iowa only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
54th percentile nationally for median household income · 39th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Spirit Lake's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Spirit Lake's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Spirit Lake's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$218,400Among the most affordablemore affordable than 52% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Spirit Lake's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#6,511 of 15,516
More affordable than 58% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,539 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.0×, Spirit Lake sits in the affordable band:
national rank #6,511 of 15,516 and #5,539 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$73,627Spirit Lake, IA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Spirit Lake, IA median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Spirit Lake, IA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)32.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)2.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)66.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
5,469
Median Income
$73,627
Median Home Value
$218,400
Median Age
40.6
Poverty Rate
2.5%
Labor force participation
66.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
32.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1727.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
341.9
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1385.6
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Climate
Avg Temperature
45.7°F
Annual Precipitation
29.1"
Annual Snowfall
41.5"
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Spirit Lake's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
5,465 residents
2021
5,498 residents
2022
5,543 residents
2023
5,556 residents
2024
5,540 residents
2025
5,525 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Growing
Total Permits (2024)
49
housing units authorized
Single-Family
18
detached homes
Multifamily
31
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
9
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
43
39
4
$8.1M
2020
35
33
2
$9.3M
2021
73
41
32
$14.8M
2022
83
48
35
$23.4M
2023
53
33
20
$12.3M
2024
49
18
31
$9.1M
Permit volume increased 14% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
79.4%
Carpool
6.9%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.4%
Work from Home
10.2%
Other
1.1%
Based on 2,844 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Iowa statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $212
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Iowa at $212 (electricity about $95 , water and sewer about $42 ).
These are Iowa statewide averages, not a meter reading for Spirit Lake. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Iowa's BEA cost-of-living index is 87.8 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Spirit Lake is $989/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Iowa statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 39.7 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Iowa statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Spirit Lake sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Spirit Lake compares to similar-size Iowa cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.