14,717 people (2024 Census estimate, +2.1% since 2020)
437 square miles of land · 34 people per square mile
“Highest” and “lowest” are just order, not grades: a high rank for poverty or hazard losses means more of it. Each figure's source is in its section below.
7 active community water systems list Mills County in the area they serve, reporting 7,573 people served in all (a system that crosses county lines counts its whole population).
| GLENWOOD MUNICIPAL UTILITIES groundwater · local government · IA6525090 | 5,449 served |
| MALVERN WATER SUPPLY groundwater · local government · IA6545020 | 1,046 served |
| EMERSON WATER DEPARTMENT groundwater · local government · IA6520019 | 412 served |
| SILVER CITY WATER SUPPLY groundwater · local government · IA6575052 | 245 served |
| HASTINGS WATER SUPPLY groundwater · local government · IA6527038 | 152 served |
| HENDERSON WATER DEPARTMENT groundwater · local government · IA6529043 | 144 served |
| PONY CREEK #1 HOA groundwater · private · IA6500823 | 125 served |
Source: U.S. EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), active community systems, . Look up any system's violations and test results with EPA's search using its ID.
About 24 people were held in Mills County's jail, in Vera's latest figure (2019), or 262 per 100,000 residents ages 15–64. In 2014 it was about 9.
Source: Vera Institute of Justice, Incarceration Trends (built from federal Bureau of Justice Statistics jail surveys). Counties without their own jail, or that share one, may show no figure.
2 school districts have their office in Mills County. School taxes are usually the largest part of a property tax bill.
Spent $29.2 million — $25.1 million to run schools, about $12,120 per student, plus $1.9 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $14.7 million local (mostly property tax), $16.7 million state, $2.2 million federal. Long-term debt: $12.3 million.
Spent $14.4 million — $6.5 million to run schools, about $14,570 per student, plus $6 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $6.1 million local (mostly property tax), $4.4 million state, $641,000 federal. Long-term debt: $17 million.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 Annual Survey of School System Finances. Districts are listed by the county of their main office; some serve neighboring counties too.
Source: County Health Rankings & Roadmaps 2025 (University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute), which gathers federal data (CDC, Census, and others); measures cover different recent years. Blank lines aren't reported for small counties.
Overall risk: Very Low compared with other U.S. counties. FEMA estimates natural hazards cost Mills County about $10.6 million a year on average in buildings, crops and lives. Ability to bounce back (community resilience): Very High; social vulnerability: Very Low.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025), expected annual loss. Ratings compare counties nationwide; they're estimates, not predictions.
184 bridges in Mills County: 54 in good condition, 95 fair, and 35 poor (19.0%). “Poor” means a main part — the deck, the beams, or the supports — is rated 4 or lower on the federal 0–9 scale. It doesn't mean unsafe to drive; unsafe bridges are closed.
| FA-BARRUS RD over PONY CREEK · built 1969 | 1,524 vehicles a day |
| FA-GASTON AVE over KEG CREEK · built 1967 | 1,065 vehicles a day |
| FA-BARRUS RD over KEG CREEK · built 1951 | 698 vehicles a day |
| 310TH ST over STREAM · built 1960 | 325 vehicles a day |
| FA-GASTON AVE over DRAINAGE · built 1951 | 139 vehicles a day |
| LCL-JESUP AVE over MAJOR DRAINAGE · built 1970 | 133 vehicles a day |
Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory (2025 submission). Includes state, county and city bridges.
Federal grants paid for $6 million of work in Mills County in fiscal 2025, about $412 per resident — to the county, cities, schools, hospitals, nonprofits and others.
Source: USAspending.gov, grants by place of performance, fiscal 2025 (Oct. 2024 to Sept. 2025). Search it by county to see each award.
From Grants.gov: posted grants listing county governments as eligible, soonest deadline first; research-only and overseas programs left out; list updated 2026-10-13, refreshed weekly. 62 are open in all. Cities, towns, school districts and nonprofits have their own lists there.
Registration deadlines, early voting and polling places for Iowa are on the federal site vote.gov, which links to the state's official election office.
The budget, property tax rates, audits, local officials and offices for Mills County come from the county's own records, which we haven't gathered — not gathered, never hidden. See what a full county site looks like, or ask to have Mills County built: brayden.ozark@gmail.com.
More of Iowa: the state government and every county in Iowa.
Nearby counties: Fremont County (20 mi) · Pottawattamie County (21 mi) · Montgomery County (24 mi) · Sarpy County, NE (26 mi) · Cass County, NE (28 mi) · Page County (32 mi).