Pottawattamie County, Iowa

County ranked by announced AI data-center load

Undisclosed Announced AI load

Campuses

Lead operator

Google

Resi rate Δ (MidAmerican Energy)

+0.9%

Home price Δ (3y)

+15.7%

Property tax Δ (3y)

+7.6%

Population (2024 ACS)

93K

Median HH income (2024 ACS)

$73,602

Key takeaways

Google's Council Bluffs campus reached $1.5 billion in total investment, which Wikipedia notes is the largest private investment in Iowa history as of the 2014 Southlands expansion announcement. Employment grew from a 200-job target at first opening (2009) to over 300 on site by June 2016.Source: sources[0] (Wikipedia: Council Bluffs, Iowa)
Pottawattamie County has 93,407 residents on a median household income of $71,446. 23.5% of adults hold a bachelor's degree, well below the Polk and Dallas County share but typical for the western-Iowa Loess Hills corridor.Source: Census ACS 2023 B01003, B19013, B15003 (Pottawattamie County, IA)
Home prices rose 15.7% over three years against a $183,600 median home value. That is the sharpest 3-year move in this batch outside Jackson County Alabama and DeKalb Illinois, and is happening on the lowest median home value in the Iowa group.Source: data/cache/realestate_yoy.csv (FIPS 19155) + Census ACS 2023 B25077
Median age in Pottawattamie is 40.1, the oldest in the Iowa cluster. MidAmerican Energy's 0.9% residential rate move is the same wind-heavy Iowa pool that holds across all three Iowa hyperscaler counties in this batch.Source: Census ACS 2023 B01002 + data/cache/utility_rate_yoy.csv (MidAmerican Energy Co, IA)

89.0% of Pottawattamie residents are white alone and only 1.8% are Black, the demographic floor of the Iowa group. Council Bluffs is the AI host in this batch that looks closest to a 1990s Iowa population snapshot.Source: Census ACS 2023 B02001_001E, B02001_002E, B02001_003E (Pottawattamie County, IA)
Broadband at home reaches only 84.0% of Pottawattamie households, the lowest connectivity rate in the Iowa group and 8 points below Polk County across the river. The Google campus exports compute capacity from a county where roughly one in six homes is still offline.Source: Census ACS 2023 B28002_001E, B28002_004E (Pottawattamie County, IA)
8.6% of Pottawattamie adults are veterans, the highest veteran share in the Iowa group and a reflection of Offutt Air Force Base just across the Missouri River. The federal payroll floor is the same dynamic that anchors Montgomery Alabama.Source: Census ACS 2023 B21001_001E, B21001_002E (Pottawattamie County, IA)
Manufacturing is 10.5% of Pottawattamie jobs against a $970 median gross rent, the second-cheapest in the Iowa group. The Council Bluffs cost-of-living base is one structural reason Google's three-phase build was the largest private investment in Iowa history.Source: Census ACS 2023 C24050_001E, C24050_004E, B25064_001E (Pottawattamie County, IA)