Have you ever wondered where in Iowa you can get the most bang for your buck?

SmartAsset, a New York-based financial advising company, looked for the most economical or “paycheck friendly” places to live across the United States.

To determine where paychecks stretch the farthest, SmartAsset calculated rankings for counties and county equivalents based on four variables: Semi-monthly paycheck averages, purchasing power, the county unemployment rate and income growth.

Here are the rankings for Iowa.

No. 1: Polk County

What makes Polk County so economical? According to SmartAsset, the county has high purchasing power, which is the value of goods or services $1 can buy, at 1.33, meaning money stretches farther compared to the state average of 1.21. Additionally, the county has an unemployment rate of just 3.4% and an income growth rate of 4.4%.

The county scored 47.35 on Smart Asset’s paycheck-friendly index.

No. 2: Warren County

Warren County, bordering Polk on the south and part of the Des Moines metro, has a population of about 55,000 people, according to the most recent census data.

It has an even lower unemployment rate than Polk at 2.8%, which also is below the state average of 3%, according to SmartAset. Additionally, Warren County boasts a 1.43 purchasing power.

No. 3: Dallas County

Dallas County, Polk’s western neighbor and another Des Moines metro county, rounded out the top three most-paycheck-friendly counties in Iowa.

The county scored 46.50 on SmartAsset’s most paycheck-friendly index, with a 3.4% unemployment rate and purchasing power of 1.49.

Other top10 paycheck-friendly counties in Iowa

4. Woodbury (home of Sioux City).

5. Calhoun.

6. Madison.

7. Sac.

8. Scott (home of Davenport).

9. Emmet.

10. Linn (home of Cedar Rapids).

How does Iowa stack up overall?

Though it ranked at the top for paycheck friendliness in Iowa, Polk County weighed in at 2,961 of 3,244 counties or county equivalents nationwide in the SmartAsset calculations.

The top 10 counties nationally were in Texas, with No. 1-ranked Winkler County and several others, and in North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.

Victoria Reyna-Rodriguez is a general assignment reporter for the Register. Reach her at vreynarodriguez@registermedia.com or follow her on Twitter @VictoriaReynaR.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – A hospital group that serves New Orleans is asking people to donate blood to help those injured after a truck “intentionally” drove into a crowd on Bourbon Street. Blood centers across the country, including here in Iowa, are also pitching in to help with supply.

ImpactLife serves eastern Iowa, as well as parts of Illinois, Missouri, and Wisconsin. Wednesday, the nonprofit shipped blood to New Orleans as part of the Blood Emergency Readiness Corps (BERC). That system is a relatively new setup that plays a key part in supporting healthcare systems after any kind of widespread injury to a community.

“Additional blood components shipped already today to New Orleans. The blood center in New Orleans needed that outside support,” said Kirby Winn, Public Relations Manager for ImpactLife.

The attack on Bourbon Street in the early morning hours on New Year’s Day killed 15 people and injured at least 35.

When there’s a mass casualty, whether it’s an attack or a natural disaster, it puts a strain on a region’s health care system. That’s where BERC steps in, with blood centers across the country helping the affected area absorb the sudden hit to its resources.

“There are people in that region who will need blood transfusions not connected to this New Year’s Eve event in the French Quarter. And so we’re making sure that blood is available for the blood center in New Orleans to meet ongoing patient needs,” Winn said.

BERC puts blood centers in a rotation where they’re on call every three weeks, an attempt to create some predictability in the face of the unknown.

“It is a relatively new entity within blood banking that was established kind of during the years of the pandemic when blood supplies were really severely constrained and there was concern about where would blood come from.”

Blood banks now have a better answer of where blood comes from when it’s needed, so while no one at ImpactLife knows the future, they are ready to help

“We just don’t know what could occur, but we do know that if we have a strong and stable blood supply, and the partnerships, and connections made in advance that we’ll do a better job responding.”

Winn said ImpactLife sent 5 units of type O+ and two units of O-, enough to pitch in and offer support without compromising local supply.

Copyright 2025 KCRG. All rights reserved.

It is going to cost more in 2025 to be an Iowa State athletics fan. 

Director of Athletics Jamie Pollard announced on Wednesday that the athletic department will “increase by over 20% in 2025,” which is expected to mean they need $20 million more to deal with the increase. 

Pollard, who sent out a letter via the official school website, stated that the need is due to a number of things.

“The financial pressure facing our athletics program is no different,” Pollard wrote. “Due to sharing revenues with our student-athletes, securing Coach (Matt) Campbell and (TJ) Otzelberger to long-term contracts, and changes to Big 12 Conference and College Football Playoff revenue distributions” the department needs the money.

He noted that all the successes for the Cyclones have not come without the needed revenue growth. That includes a win last month in the Pop-Tarts Bowl over Miami, a trip to the Big 12 title game and an appearance in the Maui Invitational by the men’s basketball program.

Here are a number of the things Pollard noted will change in 2025:

“In addition, we are continuing to explore other opportunities to increase revenues and/or reduce expenses,” Pollard wrote. “Including asking our coaches and department heads to reduce their respective annual operating budgets by 10%.”