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State Life Score

Iowa

Top-10% composite Life Score — grade A, 92nd percentile of the national corpus.

63.8
Life Score / 100
A
Grade (curved)
#4
of 51 states
92%
composite percentile

Data updated August 2026

Verify: BEA · BLS · HUD · FBI · NCES · EPA · Census · Report a data issue · Data changelog

The verdict

Iowa is top-10% composite Life Score — #4 of 51 (63.8/100, grade A, 92nd percentile). Carried by cost of living at 96/100; held back most by environment at 10/100.

92nd
composite percentile
#4
of 51 peers
94th
cost dimension percentile
35th
wages dimension percentile

Life Score shape · TOP · COST-LED

Iowa at a glance

Iowa is a TOP-band COST-LED state: cost of living leads at 96/100 while environment drags at 10/100 (FLOOR cost · LOW wages). According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, Iowa ranks #4 of 51 states by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #3 of 51 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.

Where Iowa sits among all US states

Composite Life Score vs the 50 states + DC

64 Top 8% higher than 92% of 51 US states

25–30: 1 US states (2%). Below this entry. 30–35: 2 US states (4%). Below this entry. 35–40: 4 US states (8%). Below this entry. 40–45: 6 US states (12%). Below this entry. 45–50: 10 US states (20%). Below this entry. 50–55: 12 US states (24%). Below this entry. 55–60: 10 US states (20%). Below this entry. 60–65: 4 US states (8%). This entry sits in this band. 65–70: 2 US states (4%). Above this entry. This state 25 70 every US state, bucketed by value

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US states. 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 PlainCompare composite of BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA data

Dimension detail

How Iowa scores, dimension by dimension

Score Breakdown

Cost of Living Wages Rent Safety Schools Childcare Environment

Dimension Scores

Cost of Living 96/100 (20%)
Wages 36/100 (20%)
Rent 84/100 (15%)
Safety 70/100 (15%)
Schools 60/100 (10%)
Childcare 73/100 (10%)
Environment 10/100 (10%)

Read with Iowa

Nearest composite peers and cost poles (TOP · FLOOR/LOW).

Kentucky

ABS(composite) peer at 64.1 (Δ 0.3 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade A vs this page's TOP · COST-LED · FLOOR/LOW.

Nebraska

ABS(composite) peer at 65.1 (Δ 1.3 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade A vs this page's TOP · COST-LED · FLOOR/LOW.

Mississippi

ABS(composite) peer at 66.3 (Δ 2.5 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade A+ vs this page's TOP · COST-LED · FLOOR/LOW.

Louisiana

ABS(composite) peer at 61.1 (Δ 2.7 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade A vs this page's TOP · COST-LED · FLOOR/LOW.

Oklahoma (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 94/100 (Δ 2); cost stamp FLOOR vs this state's FLOOR.

Arkansas (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 100/100 (Δ 4); cost stamp FLOOR vs this state's FLOOR.
State rankings → Compare states →

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Data sourced from official public datasets, current as of 2026. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCompare