Iowa is a state in the Midwest region of the United States of
America. The state makes international headlines every four
years as the state that hosts the first presidential primaries.
Iowa is bordered by Minnesota to the north,
Wisconsin to the
northeast, Illinois to the east,
Missouri to the south,
Nebraska
to the west, and South Dakota to the northwest.
The area
was purchased by France as part of the Louisiana Purchase and
officially became a state in 1846. Settlers who formed in the
Midwest established their communities along the existing rivers.
Today, many of the state's largest cities, such as Des Moines,
Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Davenport, Dubuque, Sioux City and
Council Bluffs, sit on rivers. Agriculture used to be the
state's main livelihood, but the continued urbanization of the
state's population has resulted in a diverse mix of industries.
Although agriculture, as the economic engine of the state, has
declined significantly, it remains an important economic
component.
Though Iowa has long been considered a rural
state, it has a surprisingly rich cultural scene. The University
of Iowa in Iowa City is home to a number of important programs,
including the Iowa Writers Workshop, a program that has trained
a number of America's great modern writers. Iowa State
University in Ames also acts as a major cultural driver in the
central part of the state.
1 Des Moines - Capital and largest city of Iowa
2
Ames
3 Cedar
Falls
4 Cedar Rapids - second largest city
5
Council Bluffs
6
Dubuque - Located on the Mississippi River
7
Iowa City
8 Quad
Cities - consisting of the cities of Bettendorf and Davenport in Iowa,
and East Moline, Moline and Rock Island in Illinois
9
Sioux City
Villisca Axe Murders House in Villisca, Iowa is a famous site of a gruesome murder of the whole family that occurred here on June 10, 1912.
Iowa is bordered by the states of Minnesota to the north, Nebraska to
the west, South Dakota to the northwest, Missouri to the south,
Wisconsin to the northeast, and Illinois to the east. The Mississippi
River forms the eastern border of the state, and the Missouri River the
western one. Iowa has 99 counties. The state capital, Des Moines, is
located in Polk County.
There are several natural lakes in the
state, the most important being Spirit Lakes, West Okoboji and East
Okoboji, in northwest Iowa. Man-made lakes are: Odessa, Saylorville, Red
Rock, Coralville, MacBride and Rathbun.
The topography of the
state is made up of plains with gentle undulations. Loess hills are seen
along the western border of the state, some of which are several hundred
feet deep. In the northeast, along the Mississippi River, is a section
of the Driftless Zone, which in Iowa consists of low, rugged hills
covered in a coniferous landscape—a landscape not generally associated
with this state.
The lowest point is Keokuk, in southeastern
Iowa, at 146 m, and the highest point, at 509 m, is Hawkeye Point,
located north of the city of Sibley, in northwestern Iowa. The average
elevation of the state is 335 m. Considering the size of the state
(145,743 km²), there is very little difference in elevation.
Iowa
has the highest average radon concentrations in the nation due to
significant glaciation that crushed the granitic rocks of the Canadian
Shield and deposited it into soils, enriching Iowa's farmland. Because
of the area's large surface area of rocky soil, radon is released as
boiling gas from the soils. Many cities in the state, such as Iowa City,
have passed radon resistance requirements for the construction of all
new homes.
Iowa, like most of the Midwest region, has a statewide humid
continental climate (Köppen climate classification 'Dfa') with extremes
of both hot and cold temperatures. The average annual temperature in Des
Moines is 10°C); for some positions in the north it is below 8 °C, while
Keokuk, on the Mississippi River, averages 12 °C. Winters are harsh and
snowfall is common, with the capital (Des Moines) receiving an average
of 92 cm per season. Spring heralds the beginning of the severe weather
season, which brings increased precipitation and rising temperatures.
The Iowa summer is known for heat and humidity, with daytime
temperatures often near 32°C and sometimes over 38°C.
It averages
50 days of thunderstorm activity per year. Some of these storms can be
intense, with strong winds and hail. The state has a moderately high
risk of tornado activity, with 37 tornadoes on average per year, mostly
during the spring and summer months.
Iowa extends over a latitude of 320 km from 40°36'N to 43°30'N and has a length of 500 km from 89°5'W to 96°31'W.
If you speak English, you will find Midwest English easy to understand. Locals believe they have no accent and speak pure American English. Customer service organizations agree with them and build call centers in the cities. Linguists disagree, pointing out some peculiarities of pronunciation and grammar.
When the first humans arrived in Iowa more than 13,000 years ago,
they were hunter-gatherers inhabiting a Pleistocene glacial landscape.
By the time European explorers arrived, the Amerindians had become
farmers with an economic, social and political infrastructure. This
transformation was carried out gradually. During the Archaic era
(10,500-2,800 years ago) people adapted to new environments and
ecosystems and became sedentary, so the population increased. More than
3,000 years ago, during the Late Archaic era, humans in Iowa began
domesticating and cultivating plants. The following period, known as the
"Woodland period" was characterized by greater dependence on agriculture
and a more complex social structure. The use of mounds and pottery
increased. During the late prehistoric period, which began around 900
AD. C., corn cultivation increased. Social changes fostered stable
settlements. With the arrival of products and diseases from Europe
through explorers and colonizers, the local population was decimated,
affecting the economy and social structure.
The first Europeans
to visit the region were French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques
Marquette in 1673. They arrived sailing down the Mississippi River, and
after examining the area they wrote that Iowa appeared to be a green and
fertile region. The territory was occupied by the nations: Iowa, Sauk,
Mesquaki, Sioux, Potawatomi, Otoe and Missouri.
Julien Dubuque
(1762–1810), born of Norman parents in St. Pierre les Brecquets, on the
southern bank of the St. Lawrence River, a little more than one hundred
kilometers east of Quebec City, Canada, was the first European to live
in what is now Iowa. In 1788 he obtained permission from the chiefs of
the Fox tribe (and, later, also from the Spanish authorities) to mine
galena (lead sulfide) in the hills next to the Mississippi River, around
the city that today bears his name.
The United States obtained
Iowa as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. The Patawatamie, Otto,
and Missourians had sold their territory to the federal government
before 1830, and in June 1833 the official colonization of Iowa by the
United States began. Most of the early settlers came from Ohio,
Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana, Kentucky, and Virginia.
The
first settlers faced a lonely and harsh life in the first decades. They
had to adapt to the extensive prairie that lacked trees and suffered
from extensive annual wild grass fires that covered the entire terrain.
Only the extreme east of the territory had enough forests to supply the
needs for housing construction and fuel. The arrival of the railroad in
the 1850s and 1860s further opened the national and international market
to the region's agricultural products, and the population grew from
43,112 (1840) to 1,194,020 (1870). As a partial result of an official
campaign to attract immigrants in 1869, many arrived from European
countries (primarily Germany, Sweden, Norway and Holland).
The
federal government accepted Iowa as a state of the Union on December 28,
1846.
The state is of particular importance in the election campaigns for
the US presidency: Traditionally, Iowa is the state in which the first
primaries of the parties are held. They give the people of Iowa great
political clout in election years.
Also, Iowa is a swing state
where predicting election outcomes is difficult. Although there was
Democratic dominance in Iowa from the late 1980s to the turn of the
millennium, in the 2004 presidential election, Iowa fell to the
Republicans for the first time since 1984, with the narrowest possible
result. In 2008 the Democrats again won the majority; In 2012 this was
achieved again. In the 2016 election, however, the Republicans again won
clearly; in no other state did so many counties switch from the
Democrats to the Republicans compared to 2012. Iowa is seen as a typical
example of a significant decline in support for Democrats in rural areas
across the US compared to the 1990s. Iowa has had six electoral college
electors since 2012. In 1988 there were eight.
In Iowa, the term political party refers to organizations that have
received two percent or more of the votes cast for the president or
governor in "the last preceding general election." Iowa recognizes two
political parties (Democrats and Republicans). . Other parties,
officially called "independent political organizations," may also appear
on the ticket—five of these have had candidates in elections in Iowa
since 2004 for various offices: the Constitution Party, the Iowa Green
Party, the Libertarian Party, the Pirate Party and the Socialist Workers
Party.
Iowa voters supported Bill Clinton in the 1992 and 1996
presidential elections. Al Gore won the state in 2000, and George W.
Bush in 2004. In the 2006 election, the Democratic Party won two seats
in the Iowa delegation in the House of Representatives, and Democrats
won majorities in both Houses in the Iowa General Assembly.
The
Code of Iowa contains the state's statutory laws. It is updated
periodically through the Iowa Legislative Service Office with a new
edition published in odd-numbered years, and a supplement published in
even-numbered years.
The state receives considerable attention every four years because it
hosts the first presidential caucus, a meeting of voters to select
delegates to the state convention, the primary or preliminary stage in
which each party decides who will receive the presidential nomination.
his party for the presidency of the United States.
Along with the
New Hampshire primary a week later, it has become the initial weapon to
elect presidential candidates from the country's two main political
parties. The caucus, held in January of the election year, involves
people meeting in homes or public places and choosing their candidate,
rather than holding secret ballots, as is done in a primary election.
National and international media give Iowa (and New Hampshire) about
half of their attention in the national candidate selection process,
giving voters enormous influence. Those who enter the caucus race often
devote enormous efforts to reaching voters in each of Iowa's 99
counties.
The 2000 national census from the United States Census Bureau
estimated Iowa's population at 2,926,324, a growth of 5.4% over the
state's 1990 population of 2,776,755. An estimate made in 2005 estimated
the state's population at 2,966,334 inhabitants, a growth of 6.8%
compared to the state's population in 1990, which was 1.4% compared to
the state's population in 2000, and 0.5% compared to the estimated
population in 2004. The 2011 estimate is 3,062,309.
Iowa's
natural population growth between 2000 and 2005 was 53,706—197,163
births minus 143,457 deaths—population growth caused by immigration was
29,386, while interstate migration showed a loss of 41,140 inhabitants.
Between 2000 and 2005, Iowa's population grew by 39,952, and between
2004 and 2005, by 13,430.
A new estimate from the Census Bureau in 2006 put the state's
population at 2,982,085 people, whose ethnic composition was as follows:
91.0% are white (European or of European descent).
3.8% are Latino or
Hispanic (among whom Mexicans predominate).
2.3% are African
American.
1.5% are Asian.
The rest are made up of people of other
ethnic origins.
The population of Latino/Hispanic origin is the
fastest growing, due to the high fertility rates of Latina women
residing in the United States, and also due to legal and illegal
immigration from Latin America and the Caribbean.
Iowa's five
largest groups by ancestry are: German (making up 35.7% of the state's
population) Irish (13.5%), English (9.5%), American (6.6%), the majority
are of Scottish or Irish descent) and Norwegian (5.7%).
The state's first school, a private school, was founded in 1830, when
Iowa was still part of the Territory of Michigan, in what is now Lee
County. In 1820, the government of the Territory of Michigan approved
budgets for the construction of the first public schools in Iowa. In
1858, as a state, the government of Iowa approved the creation of a
public education system, in 1858, composed entirely of schools of
primary education. Iowa's public school system expanded to include
junior high schools in 1911. The state made school attendance mandatory
in 1902.
Currently, all educational institutions in Iowa must
comply with regulations and standards issued by the Iowa State Board of
Education. This board directly controls the state's public school
system, which is divided into different school districts. The council is
made up of nine members chosen by the governor, plus a director of
education, who presides over the council, also chosen by the governor.
The term of office of the members of the council is indeterminate, since
the governor has the power to replace any member whenever he wants. Each
major city (city), various secondary cities (towns) and each county is
served by a school district. In cities, the responsibility for
administration of the public school system lies with the municipal
districts, while in less densely populated regions this responsibility
lies with the school districts, which operate throughout the county in
general. Iowa allows the operation of "charter schools" — independent
public schools, which are not managed by school districts but depend on
public budgets for their operation. School attendance is mandatory for
all children and adolescents over seven years of age, until the
completion of secondary education or until the age of fifteen.
In
1999, public schools served approximately 497.3 thousand students, and
employed approximately 33.5 thousand teachers. Private schools served
about 49.6 thousand students, and employed approximately 3.5 thousand
teachers. The state's public school system consumed about $3.11 billion,
and public school spending was approximately $6,500 per student. About
88% of the state's residents over 25 years of age have a high school
diploma.
Iowa's first public library was founded in 1853, in
Fairfield. Currently, Iowa public libraries move about 7.6 books per
capita annually.
The first institution of higher education was
the University of Iowa, whose creation was approved in 1847, and founded
in 1858, in Iowa City, and is currently the largest university in the
state. Currently, Iowa has 62 institutions of higher education, of which
18 are public and 44 are private.
Percentage of population by religious affiliation:
Religion 2019
Christians – 78% - 2,484,141
Protestants – 60% - 1,910,878
Catholics – 18% - 573 263
Other religions – 1% - 31,847
No
religion – 21% - 668,807
Iowa's gross domestic product (GDP) was $103 billion in 2003. The
state's per capita income, meanwhile, was $28,340. Iowa's unemployment
rate was 4.1%.
The primary sector accounts for 4% of Iowa's GDP.
Together, agriculture and livestock account for 4% of Iowa's GDP, and
employ approximately 136 thousand people. The effects of fishing and
forestry are of little importance on the state's economy. Iowa has about
94,000 farms, covering more than 90 percent of the state. Only Nebraska
has a larger percentage of the state's area covered by farms. Iowa is
the largest corn producer in the United States, producing approximately
one-fifth of the corn produced in the country. Iowa also has the largest
hog herd in the country. The state is also one of the largest soybean
producers in the country. Iowa concentrates about a quarter of the
American pig herd. Other important products of Iowa agriculture are
straw, oats, apples, legumes and cattle herds.
The secondary
sector accounts for 26% of GDP. The manufacturing industry contributes
22% of the state's GDP and employs approximately 267 thousand people.
The total value of products manufactured in the state is $31 billion.
The main industrialized products manufactured in the state are
industrially processed foods, machinery, chemical products, electrical
equipment and transportation vehicles. Iowa is the largest producer of
ethanol in the country. The construction industry accounts for 4% of the
state's GDP, and employs approximately 100,000 people. The effects of
mining on the state's economy are not important, and it employs about 3
thousand people. The main natural mineral resource in the state is
limestone.
The tertiary sector contributes 70% of GDP.
Approximately 17% of the state's GDP is generated through community and
personal services. This sector employs about 535 thousand people.
Wholesale and retail trade accounts for 16% of the state's GDP, and
employs approximately 420 thousand people. Financial and real estate
services account for about 16% of the state's GDP, and employ
approximately 135 thousand people. Des Moines is the financial center of
the state, the second largest insurance industry center in the United
States (behind only Hartford, Connecticut) and the third largest in the
world (behind London and Hartford). Public services account for 12 % of
Iowa's GDP, and generate employment for approximately 254 thousand
people. Transportation, telecommunications and public utilities employ
92 thousand people, and account for 9% of Iowa's GDP. About 85% of the
electricity generated in The state's electricity is produced by coal- or
oil-fired thermal power plants, with the state's only nuclear power
plant, the Duane Arnold Energy Center, producing 11%, and hydroelectric
plants producing about 2%.
Des Moines is the main transportation center in Iowa. It is an
important road and rail center in the Midwest region of the United
States, and has the state's main airport, Des Moines International
Airport. In 2002, Iowa owned 6,537 kilometers of railroad tracks.
In 2003, the state had 182,686 kilometers of public roads, of which
1,259 kilometers were interstate highways, considered part of the
federal highway system of the United States.
Iowa's first
newspaper, the Dubuque Visitor, was first published in 1836, in Dubuque,
and publication lasted only until 1837. The oldest newspaper in the
state still in circulation, meanwhile, is the Hawk Eye, which was It
first published in 1837, in Burlington, as the Wisconsin Territorial
Gazette and Burlington Advertiser. Currently, about 370 newspapers are
printed in the state, of which 37 are dailies.
The first radio
station was founded in 1919, in Iowa City. The state's first television
station was founded in 1949, also in Iowa City. Iowa currently has 208
radio stations—of which 84 are AM and 124 are FM—and 21 television
stations.
Iowa had only one major league sports team: the Waterloo Hawks played
in the National Basketball Association in the 1949/50 season. Since
then, the state has only had professional minor league teams, such as
the Iowa Cubs of the Pacific Coast League, the Iowa Energy of the NBA
D-League, and the Iowa Stars and Iowa Wild of the American Hockey
League.
In college sports, the two most prominent teams in the
state are the Iowa Hawkeyes of the Big Ten Conference and the Iowa State
Cyclones of the Big 12 Conference. The Hawkeyes have won the Rose Bowl
and the Orange Bowl in American football.
The Iowa Speedway is an
oval circuit opened in 2006, which has hosted motorsports races for the
IndyCar Series, the NASCAR Nationwide Series and the NASCAR Truck
Series. Meanwhile, the Knoxville oval has hosted the Knoxville Nationals
since 1961, one of the main sprint car races in the country.
In
golf, the PGA Tour has had an annual tournament in Iowa since 1971 and
the Champions Tour since 2001. The 2011 US Veterans Open was also held
there and the 2017 Solheim Cup will be held there.
In this state, more specifically in the city of Des Moines, the Groove metal and alternative metal band, Slipknot, was founded in 1995, which is possibly the most popular and successful musical act from this state.