Des Moines, IA (population: 200,202) has four medicine and health schools within its city limits. Grand View University, the highest ranked school in the city with a medicine and health program, has a total student population of 2,039. It is the 606th highest ranked school in the USA and the 8th highest in the state of Iowa (#1 is Luther College).
Medicine and Health students from Des Moines schools who go on to become medicine and health professionals, office administrators, massage therapists, trainers, etc. have a good chance at finding employment. For example, there are 271,710 people working as medical and health services managers alone in the US, and their average annual salary is $90,970. Also, Registered nurses make on average $66,530 per year and there are about 2,583,770 of them employed in the US today. In fact, in the Des Moines-West Des Moines area alone, there are 6,260 employed registered nurses earning an average salary of $55,890. Medical and health services managers in this area earn $90,150/yr and there are 910 employed.
Des Moines lies in Polk county, which is one of the 52 counties in Iowa. Overall, the Des Moines-West Des Moines area has 322,000 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 1% unemployment rate, $20/hr average worker wage, and a $42,120 average annual salary. Thus, about 3 out of every 1000 jobs in Des Moines are held by medical and health services managers, and 19/1000 are held by registered nurses.
Of the 4 medicine and health schools in Des Moines, none have a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, Drake University comes out as the most expensive ($23,091/yr) for medicine and health students, with Mercy College of Health Sciences as the lowest, reported at only $16,028/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Des Moines |
| Urbandale | IA | - | 1 | 15.697 | 16 | 5.8 miles |
| West Des Moines | IA | 57,065 | 1 | 4.37611 | 3 | 6.8 miles |
| Ankeny | IA | 45,142 | 2 | 40.688 | 102 | 9.7 miles |
| Ames | IA | 58,120 | 1 | 34.322 | 6 | 30.4 miles |
| Fort Dodge | IA | - | 2 | 25.3587 | 65 | 69.4 miles |
| Cedar Falls | IA | - | 3 | 27.7287 | 174 | 88.8 miles |
| Waterloo | IA | 67,011 | 3 | 23.0675 | 66 | 90.7 miles |