A Central Iowa City Has the Highest Percentage of Veterans in IA

Every city in America has veterans to thank for the freedoms we've enjoyed for centuries in the United States but have you ever stopped to think about just how many veterans live in your city?

In Cedar Rapids, United States Census Bureau data shows that of the 103,358 residents age 18 and over in the latest census, 7.7 percent of them are veterans. The percentage of veterans living in Waterloo was 6.9 percent. The state average is 7.4 percent. The data says in 2020, Cedar Rapids had 7,935 veterans while Waterloo had 3,597.

So which Iowa city has the highest percentage of veterans? That distinction belongs to Marshalltown in central Iowa. It's located 70 miles west of Cedar Rapids, along Highway 30. Southwest Iowa News Source says that 10.9 percent of citizens of Marshalltown are veterans. It's worth noting that Marshalltown is where the Iowa Veterans Home is located. According to its website, the Iowa Veterans Home opened in 1887 and a staff of over 900 serves about 500 Iowa veterans 135 years after the facility first opened. The Iowa Veterans Home is the 5th largest Veterans Home in the U.S. and has a campus of more than 150 acres.

In the Midwest, 24-7 Wall Street says Bellevue, Nebraska has the highest percentage of citizens that are veterans. Nearly one in five citizens, or 17.7%, are veterans. That puts Bellevue at #28 in the nation for the highest percentage of veterans.

The top three cities with the highest concentration of veterans in the United States are all located near Fort Hood, Texas. Killeen, where Fort Hood is actually located, is 3rd with 27.7% of its population that are veterans. Both Copperas Cove and Harker Heights are close by. Respectively, those cities have 28.1 and 30.1 percent of residents that are veterans. Fort Hood, the nation's largest active-duty armored post, has approximately 40,000 soldiers working there.