Iowa Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
1,670 ft 510 m1,370 ft 420 m1,230 ft 375 m930 ft 285 m630 ft 195 m480 ft 150 m
Zoom in for contour lines
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
How to use this mapviews, tools and data
- Elevation
- Ground colored by height from green (lowest) to white (highest), with contour lines every 40–500 ft (USGS data).
- Satellite
- A 2016 satellite photo at 33 ft (10 m) detail; contours off.
- 3D
- Tilt and turn the terrain; hills are raised 1.5×, or set ×1 for true height.
- Click or tap anywhere
- The exact elevation of that spot in ft and m.
- Measure
- Pick two points for the climb, descent and grade along a straight line.
- State area
- Fades everything outside the official state boundary (US Census).
Elevation Data
Iowa averages about 1,070 ft (325 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 480 ft on the southeast side to 1,670 ft on Hawkeye Point.
Average elevation
1,070 ft 325 m
all land in Iowa
Highest
1,670 ft 510 m
on Hawkeye Point
Lowest
480 ft 150 m
on the southeast side
Iowa spans about 1,190 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where most of its land lies, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.
| Figure | Elevation |
|---|---|
| Average of all land | 1,070 ft325 m |
| Highest point In Iowa, on Hawkeye Point (3DEP terrain model; no NGS survey height) | 1,670 ft510 m |
| Lowest point In Iowa, on the southeast side | 480 ft150 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
298 mi west to east through Des Moines.
Topographic Map
- Location
- State in the West North Central division of the Midwest region, United States
- Population
- 3,241,488 2024 est.
- Land area
- 55,853.7 sq mi + 419.0 sq mi water
- Density
- 58 per sq mi
- Counties
- 99
- Time zone
- Central UTC−6 / −5
- Landform region
- Central Lowland
- Drains to
- Gulf of America
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Neighboring states sharing a border, by average
Rankings by average elevation
- States in the United States27th highest of 52
Peaks and hills highest inside
- Hawkeye Point1,670 ft
- Ocheyedan Mound1,610 ft
- Pilot Knob, Hancock County1,450 ft
- Mount Lucia1,410 ft
- Granger Hill1,390 ft
All 99 counties by average elevation
- Osceola County1,530 ft
- Dickinson County1,450 ft
- O'Brien County1,450 ft
- Lyon County1,410 ft
- Clay County1,380 ft
- Audubon County1,370 ft
- Sioux County1,370 ft
- Cherokee County1,360 ft
- Buena Vista County1,360 ft
- Ida County1,350 ft
- Crawford County1,350 ft
- Plymouth County1,320 ft
- Shelby County1,320 ft
- Sac County1,310 ft
- Emmet County1,300 ft
- Carroll County1,290 ft
- Adair County1,270 ft
- Palo Alto County1,260 ft
- Cass County1,260 ft
- Howard County1,250 ft
- Winnebago County1,240 ft
- Pocahontas County1,230 ft
- Woodbury County1,230 ft
- Worth County1,220 ft
- Hancock County1,220 ft
- Adams County1,220 ft
- Union County1,210 ft
- Guthrie County1,200 ft
- Mitchell County1,190 ft
- Calhoun County1,190 ft
- Taylor County1,190 ft
- Pottawattamie County1,180 ft
- Kossuth County1,170 ft
- Cerro Gordo County1,170 ft
- Wright County1,170 ft
- Harrison County1,160 ft
- Franklin County1,160 ft
- Montgomery County1,160 ft
- Monona County1,160 ft
- Ringgold County1,140 ft
- Winneshiek County1,140 ft
- Humboldt County1,140 ft
- Chickasaw County1,130 ft
- Webster County1,130 ft
- Hamilton County1,120 ft
- Fayette County1,100 ft
- Hardin County1,100 ft
- Greene County1,100 ft
- Clarke County1,090 ft
- Mills County1,090 ft
- Page County1,090 ft
- Floyd County1,070 ft
- Madison County1,070 ft
- Boone County1,060 ft
- Wayne County1,050 ft
- Decatur County1,050 ft
- Fremont County1,020 ft
- Grundy County1,020 ft
- Delaware County1,010 ft
- Bremer County1,010 ft
- Allamakee County1,010 ft
- Story County1,010 ft
- Dallas County990 ft
- Butler County990 ft
- Buchanan County990 ft
- Marshall County990 ft
- Lucas County980 ft
- Clayton County980 ft
- Dubuque County970 ft
- Appanoose County960 ft
- Tama County940 ft
- Black Hawk County920 ft
- Poweshiek County910 ft
- Warren County910 ft
- Polk County910 ft
- Jasper County890 ft
- Monroe County890 ft
- Benton County880 ft
- Jones County880 ft
- Linn County850 ft
- Marion County840 ft
- Davis County830 ft
- Iowa County820 ft
- Jackson County810 ft
- Mahaska County790 ft
- Cedar County780 ft
- Keokuk County770 ft
- Wapello County770 ft
- Johnson County740 ft
- Jefferson County730 ft
- Washington County730 ft
- Clinton County720 ft
- Scott County710 ft
- Van Buren County710 ft
- Henry County690 ft
- Des Moines County680 ft
- Muscatine County670 ft
- Lee County650 ft
- Louisa County640 ft
The one tribal land
How we measure
- Average: every USGS 3DEP bare-earth cell of land inside the Census state boundary (TIGER/Line, Jan 1 2026), weighted equally, on a 6 arc-second (≈610 ft, 185 m) grid, coarsened from 1 arc-second so the whole area fits one run. Land means the boundary minus Census area water (on this grid, water areas of at least half a cell).
- Highest and lowest: the highest land cell, re-read at 1 arc-second around the 25 highest grid cells; it is a named summit, so its height is the peak method: the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it. Lowest: the lowest land cell, re-read at 1 arc-second around the 25 lowest grid cells; coastal ground within 3 ft (1 m) of named tidal water counts as sea level.
- Nearby Places: neighboring states and rankings use each one's average elevation, on its own grid, the same figure its page shows. Peaks and hills: the highest summits inside the state with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence, then the highest federal (GNIS) summits inside it when there are fewer than 5; each is the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a usable survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it (shown as published).
- Counties: each one's average on its own grid (1 arc-second, coarser for the largest), the same figure its own page shows.
- Rounding: computed heights are rounded to 10 ft (5 m), or to 1 ft (1 m) under 100 ft; 3DEP is good to about a meter, not a foot. Published figures (NGS survey heights) are shown as their publisher gives them.
- Datum: North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). NGS plans to replace NAVD 88 with a new datum (NAPGD2022); heights will then shift slightly.
- Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (TIGER boundaries and water, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, county adjacency); NOAA NGS survey heights; BTS time zones. All public domain.