Oelwein is a somewhat small city located in the state of Iowa. With a population of 5,834 people and two associated neighborhoods, Oelwein is the 69th largest community in Iowa. Oelwein has an unusually large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic cities.

The city is relatively quiet, having a combination of lower population density and few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. For example, Oelwein has relatively fewer families with younger children, and/or college students. Combined, this makes Oelwein a pretty quiet place to live overall. If you like quiet, you will probably enjoy it here.

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

The citizens of Oelwein are slightly less educated than the national average of 21.84% for the average city or town: 13.72% of adults in Oelwein have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree

The per capita income in Oelwein in 2018 was $26,500, which is low income relative to Iowa, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $106,000 for a family of four. However, Oelwein contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

The people who call Oelwein home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Oelwein residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Oelwein include German, Irish, English, French, and Italian.

The most common language spoken in Oelwein is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Polish.