Scott County, IA

County Profile

174,608 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Scott County, IA.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

67out of 100
Area Score
Top 30% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 26% of 1,255 counties measured67
Schools535th of 973 counties measured47
Growth929th of 1,226 counties measured36
Housing affordabilityTop 22% of 1,255 counties measured100
Climate1031st of 1,254 counties measured59
Physical resilienceTop 22% of 1,255 counties measured79
AccessTop 19% of 1,255 counties measured94
Economic stabilityTop 27% of 1,255 counties measured77
The quick read

Residential permitting has slowed: 392 units authorized over the past twelve months, 48% below the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Scott County in the top 22% for physical resilience.

A major airport is 15 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
174,608
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$78,277
Top 20% nationally
Density
381/sq mi
458.1 sq mi of land
Median age
39.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Scott County
Iowa
Metro area
Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL
Nearest major airport
MLI
15 mi · Quad Cities Intl
Median home value
$222,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.8% is lower than 67% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 0.9% over the past year, to 89,010 employed residents.

37% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 88% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$1,709$78,277Top 20%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,078$43,847Top 15%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.5%Bottom 35%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute21.6 minBottom 23%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher36.6%Top 12%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment89,010Top 28%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.2%Top 39%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.9%Bottom 43%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force92,548Top 29%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation65.7%Top 16%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.7%Bottom 10%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate3.8%Bottom 33%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.03.0
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.8% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202478k68k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $78,277 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers4,810$31,200
Retail Salespersons4,760$32,030
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand4,370$42,980
Cashiers4,250$31,200
General and Operations Managers3,750$91,140
Registered Nurses3,520$77,150

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

64% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 64% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.7 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
49
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
63.8%
Bottom 44% in Iowa
Reading proficiency
63.7%
Bottom 44% in Iowa
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Pleasant Valley High SchoolPleasant Valley Comm School District1,73117.8
Bettendorf High SchoolBettendorf Comm School District1,43315.6
West High SchoolDavenport Comm School District1,30414.7
Central High SchoolDavenport Comm School District1,28815.5
North High SchoolDavenport Comm School District1,19017.0
North Scott High SchoolNorth Scott Comm School District1,08118.0
Bettendorf Middle SchoolBettendorf Comm School District95216.778%81%
Pleasant Valley Junior High SchoolPleasant Valley Comm School District94016.885%90%
Sudlow Middle SchoolDavenport Comm School District73414.147%62%
Hopewell ElementaryPleasant Valley Comm School District65816.096%90%
Wood Middle SchoolDavenport Comm School District62914.642%57%
Riverdale Heights Elem SchoolPleasant Valley Comm School District62815.784%78%

37.9% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Iowa’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,005 takes 15% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.8 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
15.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,005
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$222,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income2.84Bottom 44%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate70.0%Bottom 29%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±10978,537Top 12%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$32$1,005Top 30%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$4,937$222,000Top 36%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income15.4%Bottom 31%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.9%Bottom 13%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
36/ 100
Ranks 929 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, measured from 2022 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has grown 1% since 2020, reaching 175,601 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 17% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 2.2 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
392
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.2
Bottom 39% nationally
Year over year
−48%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
16.8%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024176k174k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
2022202320242025805372
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−20%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 84°F and January a low of 14°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 36.2 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 46, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station DAVENPORT, 3.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index61.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation36.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low14°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high84°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index46.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing52°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
46
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
61
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

79 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, hail and drought.

HailElevated
Inland floodingModerate
Ice stormModerate
DroughtModerate

Low or minimal exposure: strong wind, winter weather, heat wave, lightning, tornado, cold wave, earthquake, landslide, wildfire, hurricane.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Scott County records 6.3 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 13.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 8.0 per 100,000 residents in Scott County.

Homicide
6.3
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
13.8
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
8.0
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
18.9
per 100,000 residents

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Scott County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Scott County rather than Scott County itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 15 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Quad Cities IntlMLI15 mi10,002 ft
The Eastern IowaCID59 mi8,600 ft
General Downing - Peoria IntlPIA83 mi10,104 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
67
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.