Persia, Iowa
8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1980. It stands in Washington Township. It lies in ZIP code area 51563. It stands on Spring Creek. The Survey maps it on the Persia quadrangle. 297 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,175 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresPersia fell from 319 to 297 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 319 | |
| 2020 | 297 | -22 (-7%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 8 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1954 USGS Omaha quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Omaha quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Omaha quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1978 USGS Persia quadrangle1:24000
- 1980 USGS Harlan quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
1 since 2015Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Persia in 2015, burning about 2 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 March 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
13 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Persia in 13 storm reports between 1994 and 2024: 7 hail, 5 thunderstorm wind, 1 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Persia | $50,000 | no account filed |
| May 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Persia | - | Amateur Radio relayed a report of a tree down and several other trees with broken branches. |
| May 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Persia | - | A 58 miles per hour wind gust was measured on a personal weather station. |
| July 2021 | Hail | Persia | - | Trained spotter reported 1 inch hail. |
| August 2018 | Flash Flood | Persia | - | A mud slide due to heavy rain occurred on Highway 44. The highway department was called and the road was cleared. |
| June 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Persia | - | The local fire department estimated wind gusts to 60 mph. |
| June 2011 | Hail | Persia | - | Hail up to quarter-size fell for an extended period in the Persia area. |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Persia | - | Thunderstorm winds estimated at 60 mph downed an extensive number of 3 inch in diameter branches near Persia. |
| June 2011 | Hail | Persia | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Persia | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Persia | - | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Hail | Persia | - | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Hail | Persia | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yorkshire | 4.1 miles | 8 | |
| Union Burg (historical) | 4.8 miles | 8 | |
| Magill | 5.4 miles | 8 | |
| Crisp | 7.5 miles | 8 | |
| Hard Scratch | 8.1 miles | 8 | |
| Beebeetown | 10.7 miles | 8 | |
| Willett | 12.4 miles | 8 | |
| Logan | 12.5 miles | 8 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Persia | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1913014 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 460096. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.




