Livability Cedar Rapids

Fast fact: Cedar Rapids is the largest corn-processing city in the world and one of the leading bioprocessing and food ingredient centers in North America. As impressive as that is, Cedar Rapids has many other impressive aspects that help make life happy around here.

Quality of life amenities include museums, two main theaters, 74 parks, four golf courses, six public swimming pools, two major hospitals and Eastern Iowa Airport. Other advantages include top-notch schools, a good transportation network and a pro-business government.

Cedar Rapids is home to 24 Fortune 500 companies, including big names like Cargill, General Mills, Nordstrom, Quaker Oats and Whirlpool. About 300 advanced manufacturing plants have operations here, and the insurance and finance industries keep growing strong, too. Other major sectors are aerospace, biotechnology, defense, education services, food and beverage, health care, IT, packaging and renewable energy.

Livability Cedar Rapids, IA is sponsored by the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance, which is home to a half million creative residents and covers 4,400 square miles in eastern Iowa including the seven county region of Benton, Cedar, Iowa, Johnson, Jones, Linn and Washington counties.