About Altoona

Altoona is a somewhat small town located in the state of Iowa. With a population of 11,842 people and just one neighborhood, Altoona is the 28th largest community in Iowa.

Altoona is neither predominently blue-collar or white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Altoona is a town of sales and office workers, professionals, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Altoona who work in office and administrative support jobs (21.71%), sales jobs (12.76%), and management occupations (9.45%).

Also of interest is that Altoona has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

Altoona is a very car-oriented town. 97.92% of residents commute to work in a private automobile rather than by other means, such as public transit, bicycling, or walking. This is because Altoona is a small town, and most people who live here have to drive out of town for work, and the town population is not large nor dense enough to support an extensive public transportation system. Altoona has a lot of rural roads, and houses can be far apart. Many residents drive out of town for regular shopping trips as well.

Being a small town, Altoona does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.

Altoona Information and Demographics

The overall education level of Altoona is somewhat higher than in the average US city of 14.96%: 22.95% of adults 25 and older in the town have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Altoona in 2000 was $20,917, which is wealthy relative to Iowa, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $83,668 for a family of four.

The people who call Altoona home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Altoona is White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Altoona include German, Irish, English, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, and European.

The most common language spoken in Altoona is English. Some people also speak Spanish.