Ankeny vs West Des Moines

A side-by-side comparison of Ankeny and West Des Moines: population, income, housing, and more.

Ankeny and West Des Moines are places in Iowa. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Ankeny has the higher population (70,542 vs 69,893 in West Des Moines). Ankeny has the higher median household income ($106,603 vs $84,925 in West Des Moines). Ankeny has the higher median home value ($311,300 vs $286,300 in West Des Moines).

Population, income & housing

	Ankeny	West Des Moines
Population	70,542	69,893
Median age	33.2 yrs	36.5 yrs
Median household income	$106,603	$84,925
Median home value	$311,300	$286,300
Median gross rent	$1,279	$1,194
Housing units	28,619	33,605
Homeownership rate	71.0%	57.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	53.2%	54.6%
Unemployment rate	2.2%	2.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Ankeny	West Des Moines
Population	61,938 → 70,542 (+13.9%)	65,606 → 69,893 (+6.5%)
Median household income	$86,486 → $106,603 (+23.3%)	$76,368 → $84,925 (+11.2%)
Median home value	$220,100 → $311,300 (+41.4%)	$218,500 → $286,300 (+31.0%)
Median gross rent	$1,073 → $1,279 (+19.2%)	$1,017 → $1,194 (+17.4%)

Ankeny

Population

61,93870,542

Median household income

$86,486$106,603

Median home value

$220,100$311,300

Median gross rent

$1,073$1,279

West Des Moines

Population

65,60669,893

Median household income

$76,368$84,925

Median home value

$218,500$286,300

Median gross rent

$1,017$1,194

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Ankeny	West Des Moines
Under 5	7.4%	5.9%
5 to 17	20.2%	15.3%
18 to 24	8.7%	8.6%
25 to 34	16.6%	18.0%
35 to 44	16.0%	13.9%
45 to 54	12.2%	11.9%
55 to 64	7.6%	11.8%
65 to 74	6.5%	8.3%
75 and over	4.8%	6.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Ankeny	West Des Moines
White (non-Hispanic)	88.0%	78.3%
Black or African American	1.9%	3.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	3.0%	7.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	0.4%
Two or more races	2.9%	4.4%
Hispanic or Latino	4.0%	6.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Ankeny	West Des Moines
No high school diploma	2.2%	3.7%
High school graduate	15.9%	16.1%
Some college or associate's	28.7%	25.6%
Bachelor's degree	35.7%	35.7%
Graduate or professional degree	17.5%	18.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Ankeny	West Des Moines
Drove alone	75.3%	71.9%
Carpooled	6.2%	7.8%
Public transit	0.3%	0.3%
Walked	0.8%	1.1%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.1%
Worked from home	16.4%	17.3%
Other means	0.9%	1.4%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Ankeny	West Des Moines
1-unit, detached	58.2%	44.8%
1-unit, attached	15.2%	11.9%
2 to 4 units	2.8%	2.0%
5 to 19 units	12.2%	18.0%
20 or more units	10.4%	22.5%
Mobile home & other	1.0%	0.9%

Poverty & households

	Ankeny	West Des Moines
Poverty rate	4.1%	7.3%
Average household size	2.54	2.18
Mean commute (minutes)	21	18
Median year structure built	2005	1993