By Kevin Baskins, Des Moines Register
- Regional collaboration and a focus on service-oriented businesses contribute to Des Moines’ economic success.
- Des Moines is the fastest-growing large metro in the Midwest, driven by in-state migration and expanding job sectors.
This story is part of America’s Evolving Cities, a USA TODAY Network project that takes a close look at four regions across the country and their unique paths to success — and how residents have benefited or suffered along the way.
As a transplanted business executive from Chicago, Tim Fleming said he and his wife attended more shows at the Des Moines Civic Center during their first year in the Des Moines metro than they did in 10 years in Chicago.
“It’s been great. Oftentimes the shows are the same here as what’s available in Chicago, including the same casts, because the productions are moving across the country from Chicago,” said Fleming, CEO of The Mutual Group, a business-to-business financial services company.
Fleming also recalls that in his first year in the metro, he was able to accompany his son to his first day in fifth grade, something he said never could have happened in Chicago.
That combination of small-town-like quality of life and big-city amenities is the reason for Fleming’s enthusiastic endorsement of the metro as a place to live and work. It’s something The Mutual Group, based in West Des Moines, proudly touts as it recruits job candidates.
“Our location is a strength of ours, not a challenge, and we never have given any real consideration to being anywhere else,” Fleming said. “We love it here.”
It’s one of the reasons Des Moines continues to be the fastest-growing large metropolitan area in the Midwest.
Annual U.S. Census estimates show the six-county Des Moines metro, one of the 100 largest in the United States, grew 6.3% from 2020 to 2024. It’s comfortably within the top 20% of all U.S. metros, large and small, for its rate of growth and has been for most of the past three decades.
‘How you gonna keep ’em down on the farm?’
Out-of-state transplants to Iowa like Fleming are one source of Des Moines’ growth. A hint of another can be heard in a song that was popular among soldiers returning from World War I: “How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm ( After They’ve Seen Paree?)”
It’s not Paris, but the growth of the metro with the French-sounding name — Des Moines — has been fed by migration from Iowa’s increasingly empty countryside.
The metro accounted for 85% of Iowa’s growth in the most recent decade while the most recent U.S. Census estimates show that 58 of Iowa’s 99 counties — almost 60% — lost population from 2020 to 2024. That continues a trend that began well before the 1980s Farm Crisis decimated many Iowa small towns.
Even some of Iowa’s biggest metros — Davenport, Dubuque and Sioux City — are steadily losing residents to larger ones like Minneapolis-St. Paul, Omaha, Nebraska, and, of course, Des Moines.
“A large portion (of growth in the Des Moines metro) is a re-shifting of people within the state,” said David Peters, a sociologist at Iowa State University. “Iowa’s population is pretty slow growing overall, relative to other states. And so a lot of it is people leaving places like Davenport, places like the micropolitans in rural Iowa, and moving in to places like Des Moines.”
While Iowa more broadly, and many parts of the Midwest, have struggled to attract younger workers, Des Moines sticks out as a success story in the region, said Ben Ayers, senior economist for Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., which maintains a large Des Moines metro workforce.
“The increases in jobs and population have helped contribute to the metro’s vibrant and dynamic environment. This virtuous cycle has helped the area to become a source of growth for Iowa while much of the rest of the state has seen a dwindling population base,” Ayers said.
He said much of the success of the Des Moines metro has come from expanding industries in the area and a focus on service-oriented businesses, as opposed to the traditional manufacturing base of most of Iowa and the Midwest, which has struggled in recent years.
“Younger workers have come to the area for expanding technology, financial services and logistics jobs, building a unique base of skills within the ag-focused region,” Ayers said.
He said the metro also benefits from a relatively low cost of living and — at least by national standards — inexpensive housing, and it is well connected through transportation hubs to many of the other growing centers of the county.
The more youthful population in the Des Moines metro pays two different dividends, Peters said.
Unlike many other parts of the state, it is experiencing natural growth — that is, the number of babies being born is outpacing the number of people dying, he said.
The second benefit is retirees moving to the area to be closer to their kids and grandkids, he said.
Peters pointed out that while the city of Des Moines remains the cultural and entertainment center of the metro, it has seen a slight decrease in its population while rapid growth has occurred in the suburbs.
“If you take a drive north, south, east or west on the major interstates you see the subdivisions popping up everywhere,” he said.
Immigration helping keep city afloat
People moving to the Des Moines metro from rural areas of Iowa has not been the only source of population growth. The census reports that 14.6% of Des Moines’ population is foreign born, compared to 5.9% for the rest of the state.
Overall, non-natives of the U.S. account for 8% of the more than 750,000 residents in the Des Moines metro, and without immigration, the city of Des Moines’ population loss since 2020 — 1.8% — would have been far more pronounced.
Coordination builds attractive region
Tiffany Tauscheck, president and CEO of the Greater Des Moines Partnership, the regional chamber of commerce, said promoting a unified approach to growth between Des Moines and surrounding communities has played a big part in ensuring central Iowa has a vibrant economy and appealing culture.
“A significant driver of our growth in general, including population, employment, gross domestic product, and best-in-class quality of life attractions and amenities, is driven by our region’s ability to work together across sectors and jurisdictional boundaries,” Tauscheck said.
The ability of public, private and nonprofit leaders to work together to identify what is needed to ensure growth and complete major projects drives the region’s success, she said.
“We hear from peers across the country and economic development site selectors that our ability to work as one region is unique,” she said.
She said the metro’s employment growth of 12% from 2012 to 2023 outpaced that of all other major Midwestern metros, with strong growth in transportation, warehousing and construction jobs in the last five years.
Momentum for the Des Moines metro looks to continue, at least in the near term.
“In 2024, our team generated more than 100 economic development project leads, which was the highest in years, and we worked with local partners to complete 29 new and existing business location and expansion projects,” Tauscheck said.
Fleming, the financial CEO, credits the Partnership for fostering the spirit of regionalism.
“I think they do a great job of bringing people together to grow the overall pie for everyone and to help us all be successful. I just don’t know that other areas do that as well as we do here in Des Moines,” he said.
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