Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
The best of Nora Springs’ subject grades are an A+ for cost of living and civic life; the weakest is a D for walkability. On walkability, just 1 of Iowa’s 276 towns do worse. On the outdoors, just 25 of Iowa’s 276 towns do worse. Hawkeye Street Underpass and Mason City Public Library is on the National Register of Historic Places. Nora Springs has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
Where Nora Springs beats most towns.
Hawkeye Street UnderpassIn a town this size, neighbors are the best guide. Ask them anything.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Iowa), ordered by how far Nora Springs is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 617 in 1880, 1,369 in 2020. The archive holds 5 old photos and papers going back to 1894 and a map from 1954 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Nora Springs, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in Nora Springs.
Nora Springs’ mean commuting time is 24 minutes. Commuting out is the norm in the town: 5% of working residents work locally. Also worth knowing: it had 299 jobs in 2023, up 34 from 2013. Among residents locally, 5.3% live below the poverty line, where Iowa’s towns sit at 11% and U.S. towns at 9.6%.
| Nora Springs | Iowa towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working residents who work in town | 4.5% | 31% | 8% |
| Below the poverty line | 5.3% | 11% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 24 minutes | 19 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Work from home | 11% | 8.5% | 11% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Its public schools are run by the Central Springs Community School District. One of its 2 schools is below, with the reason it’s listed. The 2 public schools in Nora Springs teach 400 students between them.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central Springs Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 4–8 | Grades 4–8 | 255 | A− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within IA on state tests and graduation
Nearly a quarter of Nora Springs adults get no exercise outside work. Against the Iowa average, Nora Springs comes out ahead on 5 CDC measures out of 32, and behind on 1. Among adults locally, 30% sleep under 7 hours, below both the Iowa town median (32%) and the median of U.S. towns (36%). In Nora Springs, 20% of adults binge drink, and 20% have been diagnosed with depression.
| Nora Springs | Iowa towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 30% | 32% | 36% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 20% | 16% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 21% | 23% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 13% | 14% |
| What stands out | Nora Springs | IA |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 7.8% | 11.6% |
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 9.2% | 12% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 10.1% | 8.7% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
For Nora Springs, the FEMA hazard score is 70 of 100. Federal aid has come to Nora Springs households in 7 declared disasters; the latest was in 2018. Of the losses FEMA expects locally, 40% come from inland flooding and 25% from drought.
FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Among 141 Iowa towns, just 10 have a lower midsummer high than Nora Springs. July afternoons reach 82°, January nights drop to 8° and about 44 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Zillow values the typical Nora Springs home at about $195,000, up 5.5% in a year, 18% below the Iowa typical home. Among households in the town, 83% are owner-occupiers.
| Nora Springs | Iowa towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 83% | 70% | 73% |
| Median rent | $669 a month | $911 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Nora Springs has 2 parks and preserves, 3 acres in all. Among 140 Iowa towns, just 3 have a lower share of conserved land than Nora Springs.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Nora Springs City Park | — | 2 |
| 2. Shellrock River Greenbelt | — | 1 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
1 within 15 miles of the center of Nora Springs
About 5 of every 100 Nora Springs residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Iowa.
Where Nora Springs’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
City in Iowa, United States
Nora Springs is a city that is partially in Cerro Gordo and Floyd counties in the U.S. state of Iowa, along the Shell Rock River. The population was 1,369 at the time of the 2020 census. The Cerro Gordo County portion of Nora Springs is part of the Mason City Micropolitan Statistical Area.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Not for the area. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades A+.
2 notable people were born here, including Louis Bauman and Hazel Gertrude Kinscella.