Less than 10k People Live in the Best Small Towns in Iowa

Some people are made for small-town living. They love it! I'm definitely not one of those people, I prefer the city, but I still appreciate small towns. I love visiting small towns and seeing everything that people love about them.

Now I have a new small town to add to my list of places to go. There are two small towns in Iowa that were named some of the best in America. One of the small towns I have visited and I can confirm it's a great place. The other I have yet to visit.

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The 100 Best Small Towns in the US

This list was put together by a site called Far and Wide. They name the 100 best small towns across the country. They write that the list "focuses on lesser-known towns with 10,000 residents or fewer."

We all know about the big cities and the cool stuff they have to offer. But there are plenty of great things we're missing out on by not stopping in these small towns.

Best Small Towns in Iowa

Let's take a look at the small towns that are officially the best small towns in Iowa (according to Far and Wide, at least).

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Coming in as the 99th best small town in the country is Fairfield!

This is the one that I haven't visited, so I need to add it to my list of places to check out. They have a population of 9,416 and Far and Wide writes that they "hosted the first and second Iowa State Fairs."

They also say that Fairfield is "an epicenter for Transcendental Meditation, with one of the world's largest training centers." They also have 150 non-profits and 400 start-up companies, which is a ton for a town of less than 10k.

The second Iowa town on the list, coming in as the 93rd-best small town in the country is Decorah!

I visited Decorah for the first time not too long ago and it's an awesome little town. With a population of 6,992, there's a surprising number of things to do there. You can hike, you can kayak, you can visit their breweries (Decorah is home to Toppling Goliath), check out the museums, and shop the downtown area.

It's also home to Luther College which would be a large reason why there's so much to do even in a town of less than 7,000.

Far and Wide writes about the "large number of Norwegian immigrants" that came to Decorah in the 1850s. Because of this, there's a lot of Norwegian influence on the town to this day. For example, they have an annual Nordic Fest every July.