Iowa

The title of this article is ambiguous. See Iowa (disambiguation) for other meanings .

Iowa
(Details) (Details)
List of states
Capital city:	Des Moines
State motto:	"Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain"
Official language :	English
Surface:	145,743 km²
Resident:	3,155,070 (2019) (21.7 U / km²)
Member since:	December 28, 1846
Time zone:	UTC − 6 ( CST ) UTC − 5 (daylight saving time)
The highest point:	509 m (Hawkeye Point)
Average Height:	335 m
Deepest point:	149 m Mississippi River
Governor :	Kim Reynolds ( R )
Post  / Office /  ISO	IA / IA / US-IA
Map of Iowa
Topographic map of Iowa

Iowa State Capitol , seat of the state legislature (2013)

Iowa ( English pronunciation  [ ˈaɪ̯əwə ] ) has been the 29th state of the United States of America since joining the Union on December 28, 1846  . The state is located in the Midwest and is known for growing corn and its wide open spaces. The only exceptions to the village and small town structure are the large regions around Des Moines , Cedar Rapids , Davenport and Sioux City .

geography

Geographical location

Iowa is located in the American Midwest. The state is bordered by Minnesota to the north, Nebraska and South Dakota to the west, Missouri to the south, and Wisconsin and Illinois to the east .

The Mississippi River forms the state's eastern border. In the west, rivers also form the state border - south of Sioux City it is the Missouri River , north of it the Big Sioux River . The topography of the state is characterized by hilly plains. Loess elevations can be found along the western border, some are several hundred meters thick. The so-called Iowa Great Lakes are among the few naturally formed lakes - including Big Spirit Lake , East Okoboji Lake and West Okoboji Lake . You are in the northwestern part of the state near the Minnesota border.

The annual rainfall in Iowa decreases towards the northwest. The more forested areas of the south and east merge into the high grass prairies of the Great Plains in the north and west .

The lowest point is the Mississippi River at Keokuk in southeast Iowa (175 m); the highest point is Hawkeye Point (509 m). In relation to the area, the height differences are small.

With a total area of ​​145,743 km², Iowa ranks 26th in the midfield of all US states by area size. 1,042 km² (0.71 percent) of the state is water.

Extension of the national territory

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.

outline

• List of counties in Iowa

population

Population development
Census	resident		± in%
1840	43,112		-
1850	192.214		345.8%
1860	674.913		251.1%
1870	1,194,020		76.9%
1880	1,624,615		36.1%
1890	1,912,297		17.7%
1900	2,231,853		16.7%
1910	2,224,771		−0.3%
1920	2,404,021		8.1%
1930	2,470,939		2.8%
1940	2,538,268		2.7%
1950	2,621,073		3.3%
1960	2,757,537		5.2%
1970	2,824,376		2.4%
1980	2,913,808		3.2%
1990	2,776,755		−4.7%
2000	2,926,324		5.4%
2010	3,046,355		4.1%
2018 estimate	3,156,145		3.6%
Before 1900 1900-1990 2000

Population density

Iowa has 3,156,145 inhabitants (as of 2018 estimated), of which 88.7 percent are white , 5.0 percent Hispanics or Latinos , 2.9 percent are black or African-American , 1.7 percent are Asian-Americans and 0.4 percent are descendants of America Native people.

Most of the residents of Iowa have European ancestry. With around 36 percent (2014), people of German origin form by far the largest group. The Amana Colonies on the Iowa River are still German today.

Religions

The largest religious community in Iowa is the Roman Catholic Church, which makes up around 23 percent of the population. The individual Protestant denominations are much less strongly represented. However, if the various Protestant groups are added together, Iowa is more Protestant. The religious communities with the largest number of members in 2000 were the Catholic Church with 558,092, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America with 268,543 and the United Methodist Church with 248,211 followers.

The building "Trinity Church" in Manning became famous . Because of the reduced community, it was laboriously transported on a low-loader to a place 10 km away.

When asked "What is your religion?", Iowa residents replied in 2001:

• 23% Catholics
• 16% Lutherans
• 13% Methodists
• 6% others
• 5% no answer
• 5% Baptists
• 5% Christians
• 3% Presbyterians
• 2% Protestants
• 2% Pentecost Movement
• 2% Congregationalists / United Church of Christ
• 1% Church of Christ

Biggest cities

See also : List of Locations in Iowa

story

In the northeast of the state on the banks of the Mississippi River lies the Effigy Mounds National Monument , a memorial and archaeological reserve for artificial mounds called mounds, which were created by an early indigenous culture in the Woodland period between 500 BC. BC and around the year 1200 were built.

The state was named after the Iowa nation and in 1846 the 29th state. Iowa is also known as Hawkeye State as a tribute to Chief Black Hawk .

With its fertile prairies and predominance of agriculture , Iowa is one of the typical states of the Midwest , as 90 percent of the area is used for agriculture. Iowa is also called Corn State because of the growing of corn . Hunting and fishing are popular. There are also many parks, often of historical importance.

Iowa's first capital was Iowa City . When the population center moved westward due to increasing settlement, it was decided to move the capital closer to the geographic center of the state. In 1857 Des Moines was designated the capital. Iowa supported the Union during the American Civil War . No battles took place within the national territory. The closest battle was that of Athens, Missouri (1861). Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood sent 116,000 men from Iowa to the Union Army (out of a total population of 675,000).

Pioneers in civil rights

Iowa has always pioneered civil rights. In 1839 the Iowa Supreme Court , the highest court in the state, declared slavery unlawful decades before the civil war resolved the matter nationally. In 1868, the court ruled that forms of segregation , such as racial segregation in schools, were not permitted in Iowa, while the US Supreme Court did not do so until 1954 in the Brown v. Board of Education passed a judgment to this effect. In 1873, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that racial discrimination in public institutions was against the law, nearly a hundred years before the national court ruled.

In 1869, Iowa became the first state to allow women access to legal professions.

In 2009, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously ruled that state law prohibiting homosexual marriage violates the constitutional principle of equality and is therefore void. This made Iowa the third state after Massachusetts and Connecticut in which same-sex partners are allowed to marry.

politics

Presidential election results

year	Democrats	republican
2020	44.89% 759,061	53.09% 897,672
2016	41.74% 653,669	51.15% 800,983
2012	51.99% 822,544	46.18% 730,617
2008	54.04% 818,240	44.74% 677,508
2004	49.28% 741,898	49.92% 751,957
2000	48.60% 638,517	48.22% 634,373
1996	50.31% 620,258	39.92% 492,644
1992	43.35% 586,353	37.33% 504,890
1988	54.71% 670,557	44.50% 545,355
1984	45.89% 605,620	53.27% 703,088
1980	38.60% 508,672	51.31% 676,026
1976	48.46% 619,931	49.47% 632,863
1972	40.48% 496,206	57.61% 706,207
1968	40.82% 476,699	53.01% 619,106
1964	61.88% 733,030	37.92% 449,148
1960	43.22% 550,565	56.71% 722,381

The state is of particular importance in the election campaigns for the US presidency : Iowa is traditionally the state in which the first party primaries are held. They give the people of Iowa great political weight in election years.

Iowa is also a swing state , where it is difficult to predict election results. Although Iowa was democratic from the late 1980s to the turn of the millennium, Iowa fell to the Republicans for the first time since 1984 in the 2004 presidential election , with a very slim result . In 2008 the Democrats won the majority again; This succeeded again in 2012 . In the 2016 election, however, the Republicans won again significantly. Iowa currently has six electors in Electoral College since 2012 . In 1988 there were eight.

Governors

• List of Iowa Governors
• List of Lieutenant Governors of Iowa

congress

• List of members of the US House of Representatives from Iowa
• List of US Senators from Iowa

Members of the 117th Congress

House of Representatives

	Surname	Member since	Party affiliation
	Ashley Elizabeth Hinson Arenholz	2021	republican
	Mariannette Jane Miller-Meeks	2021	republican
	Cynthia Lynne Axne	2019	democrat
	Randall L. Feenstra	2021	republican

senate

	Surname	Member since	Party affiliation
	Joni Kay Ernst	2015	republican
	Chuck Grassley	1981	republican

death penalty

Iowa abolished the death penalty for the first time in 1872 , but reintroduced it in 1878. It was abolished again in 1965. Efforts to introduce the death penalty for cases of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and killing children failed in the Iowa Senate in 2006 . Still, the previous year the Sioux City Federal District Court sentenced two defendants to death in the state's first death sentence in 40 years.

Culture and sights

The metal band Slipknot hails from Des Moines , Iowa. In addition, their second album was named after the state.

Natural monuments

The National Park Service (NPS) has two National Historic Trails for Iowa :

• Mormon Trail
• Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail

There are also seven National Natural Landmarks (as of September 30, 2017).

Cultural monuments

Birthplace of Herbert Hoover in the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site (2009)

The NPS maintains a National Historic Site and a National Monument for Iowa :

• Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
• Effigy Mounds National Monument

Iowa also has 26 National Historic Landmarks and 2,365 structures and sites that are on the National Register of Historic Places (as of September 30, 2017).

Economy and Infrastructure

The real gross domestic product per capita (English per capita real GDP) was USD 57,028 in 2016 (national average of the 50 US states: USD 57,118; national ranking: 20). The unemployment rate was 2.9% in November 2017 (national average: 4.1%).

Iowa's main products are pork , corn , soybeans , potatoes , beef and dairy products . Other products are goods for food production, machines, electronics, chemical products, as well as products of the printing trade and the metal industry. The tractor was invented in the small village of Froehlich in northeast Iowa . Today the tractor manufacturer John Deere produces a considerable part of its products in the factories in Davenport and Waterloo. The state of Iowa is part of the Corn Belt .

education

The major state colleges are Iowa State University , the University of Iowa , University of Northern Iowa, and Morningside College . Other universities are included in the list of universities in Iowa .

literature

• William Roba, German-Iowan Studies. Selected Essays , (= New German-American Studies, Volume 28) New York et al. 2004, 132 pp., ISBN 0-8204-5287-4 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Iowa  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Wikivoyage: Iowa  Travel Guide

Commons : Iowa  - collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

• Official site of the state of Iowa

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Quick Facts Iowa, UNITED STATES"
2. ↑ US Census Bureau _ Census of Population and Housing . Retrieved February 28, 2011.
3. ↑ Excerpt from Census.gov . Retrieved February 28, 2011.
4. ↑ Excerpt from factfinder.census.gov.Retrieved February 28, 2011.
5. ↑ factfinder.census.gov ( Memento from February 13, 2020 in the web archive archive.today )
6. ^ The Association of Religion Data Archives Maps & Reports ( Memento from August 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
7. ^ Iowa Supreme Court legalizes gay marriage . Retrieved December 3, 2010.
8. ^ David Leip: Dave Leip's Atlas of US Presidential Elections. Retrieved January 14, 2021 . 
9. ↑ www.270towin.com .
10. ↑ Larry Wayne Koch, Colin Wark, John F. Galliher: The Death of the American Death Penalty: States Still Leading the Way. Northeastern University Press, Lebanon 2012, ISBN 978-1-55553-782-1 , pp. 12-14.
11. ^ Iowa. In: nps.gov. Retrieved January 29, 2019.
12. ^ Iowa. In: nps.gov. Retrieved January 29, 2019.
13. ^ US Department of Commerce, BEA, Bureau of Economic Analysis: Bureau of Economic Analysis. Retrieved August 27, 2017 (American English). 
14. ^ Unemployment Rates for States. Retrieved January 8, 2018 . 

Coordinates: 42 °  N , 93 °  W