Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Northwood’s best subject grades are an A+ for cost of living and civic life and an A for history; its weakest is a C− for incomes. On cost of living, just 19 of Iowa’s 276 towns do better. On civic life, just 1 of Iowa’s 271 towns do better. Northwood has 3 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Old Worth County Courthouse and Worth County Courthouse. Northwood has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
Where Northwood beats most towns.
Worth County CourthouseEach subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Iowa), ordered by how far Northwood is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 289 in 1870, 2,072 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1999 and 2 maps from 1972 on.
3 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Northwood, 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 Northwood.
Summers in Northwood are pleasant, and winters cold, snowy. July afternoons reach 81°, January nights drop to 7° and about 40 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
The Northwood-Kensett Community School District runs its public schools. Its two schools are below. 2 public schools serve Northwood, with 552 students in all.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northwood-Kensett ElementaryLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 287 | B− |
| Northwood-Kensett Middle/High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 6–12 | Grades 6–12 | 265 | B− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within IA on state tests and graduation
Northwood: nearly two in five adults have high blood pressure. Among adults in the town, 19% binge drink, below Iowa’s towns (20%) but above U.S. towns (16%).
| Northwood | Iowa towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 41% | 38% | 35% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 39% | 35% | 35% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 17% | 15% | 14% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 20% | 16% |
| What stands out | Northwood | IA |
|---|---|---|
| More adults with heart disease | 8.4% | 6.6% |
| More adults who have had a stroke | 4.2% | 3.3% |
| More adults with COPD | 8.7% | 6.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Northwood’s mean commuting time is 18 minutes, near the Iowa town median (19 minutes) and below the median of U.S. towns (25 minutes). Roughly one working resident in three has a job in Northwood itself. Employers in Northwood shed 280 jobs between 2013 and 2023, to 1,035. Half commute less than 17 miles.
| Northwood | Iowa towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working residents who work in town | 32% | 31% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 18 minutes | 19 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $63,000 | $69,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 8.8% | 11% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Typical home values rose 5.6% in the year to September 2026. Among households in Northwood, 83% live in a home they own.
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
The national flood insurance program has paid 2 claims in Northwood since 2001. FEMA expects less storm and flood damage in the town than in 55% of U.S. communities. Expected losses in Northwood break down as 36% from inland flooding and 23% from drought. Federal aid has come to Northwood households in 4 declared disasters; the latest was in 2021.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Trails total 0.3 miles in 4 parks and preserves. The biggest park or preserve is Worth County Fairgrounds, at 20 acres. For Northwood, the concentration of trails is 0.1 miles per square mile.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Worth County Fairgrounds | — | 20 |
| 2. Swensrud Park | — | 8 |
| 3. Hurd Park | — | 7 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
None within 15 miles of Northwood; the nearest are
About 2 of every 100 Northwood residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Iowa.
3 places in Northwood on the National Register of Historic Places.
3 notable people were born in Northwood.
City in Iowa, US
Northwood is a city in and the county seat of Worth County, Iowa, United States, along the Shell Rock River. The population was 2,072 at the time of the 2020 census. Northwood 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.
2 times the nonprofits per person than the typical Iowa town.
Not for the area. That is 3 years of the area's median household income ($68,926 across the Mason City, IA 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+.
3 notable people were born here, including George C. Mathews and Jane Bloomingdale.
