Iowa Risk Spotlight: the highest- and lowest-risk counties (September 2026)
Published 2026-09-10
Every county in Iowa carries a different mix of natural-hazard, road-safety and crime risk. RiskIndex scores all of them on a single 0–100 composite scale (higher = riskier) built entirely from official U.S. government data — FEMA, NHTSA and the FBI. Here's how Iowa's counties stack up this month.
The 5 highest-risk counties in Iowa
| # | County | Composite | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scott County | 68 | D |
| 2 | Pottawattamie County | 66.1 | D |
| 3 | Clinton County | 64.9 | D |
| 4 | Cass County | 64.6 | D |
| 5 | Hardin County | 63.1 | D |
Across these five, the biggest risk driver is crime rates reported to law enforcement. Click any county for its full hazard, crash, crime and area profile.
The 5 lowest-risk counties in Iowa
| # | County | Composite | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Howard County | 14.4 | A |
| 2 | Grundy County | 17.1 | A |
| 3 | Pocahontas County | 20.9 | B |
| 4 | Shelby County | 21.3 | B |
| 5 | Buchanan County | 21.5 | B |
How these scores are built
The composite blends three government datasets: natural hazard (FEMA National Risk Index, 45%), road safety (NHTSA fatal-crash records, 30%) and crime (FBI Crime Data Explorer, 25%). Each is expressed as a percentile against all U.S. counties, so a score of 80 means an area is riskier than 80% of the country. Full methodology and refresh dates are on our Data Sources page.
Want this data programmatically? The RiskIndex API returns these scores — plus ZIP-level detail and 14 area indicators — as clean JSON. Get a free API key (100 calls/month, no card required), or go commercial from $9/mo.
Scores are statistical percentiles for comparing areas, not predictions, and not a consumer report under the FCRA. See our Terms.