Residents of the city have the good fortune of having one of the shortest daily commutes compared to the rest of the country. On average, they spend only 17.89 minutes getting to work every day.
In terms of college education, Ottumwa is nearly on par with the US average for all cities of 21.84%: 19.33% of adults 25 and older in Ottumwa have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Ottumwa in 2022 was $29,395, 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 $117,580 for a family of four. However, Ottumwa contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Ottumwa is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Ottumwa home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Ottumwa residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Ottumwa also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 14.90% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Ottumwa include German, English, Irish, Dutch, and Swedish.
The most common language spoken in Ottumwa is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and African languages.
