Iowa’s population grew by nearly 8,000 residents last year, but a new report from an Iowa based research group says the slow pace of that growth is a drag on the state’s economic outlook. Ben Murrey is Iowa director of Policy and Research for the Common Sense Institute.
Iowa’s birth rate last year was 71% below the average birth rate between 1991 and 2019, and nearly 1,000 more people moved out of Iowa in 2025 than moved in last year. While that’s better than the long term trend, Murrey says Iowa ranked 39th nationally in outward migration to other states.
Murrey’s research group has recently examined factors that might be influencing this trend and found Iowa struggles to keep graduates of the three public universities.
According to U.S. Census data, over 93% of Iowa residents over the age of 25 are high school graduates and just over 30% of them have a college degree.
