Iowa’s four-year graduation rate for the public high school class that graduated in spring 2025 was 88.8%, the highest in the past five years, new data from the Iowa Department of Education shows.

In fall 2021, 39,559 Iowa public school students began ninth grade; in spring 2025, 35,116, or 88.8%, of those students received their high school diploma, the state data shows. The graduation rate of the high school class of 2024 was 88.3%, the same as it was for the class of 2019 which graduated before the pandemic began. 

The four-year graduation rate for the class of 2018 was 91.4%, state data shows.

Included in the release of graduation rate data were four-year graduation rates for student groups, including:

• 71.9% for students with disabilities, up from 2024 when the rate was 70.3%.
• 81.2% for low-income students, up from 2024 when the rate was 80.2%.
• 72.2% for students whose first language is not English, down from 2024 when the rate was 73.4%.

Graduation rates are calculated with a formula established by the U.S. Department of Education. Unique student identification numbers allow school districts to account for all ninth-grade students as they move through high school. At the state level, the method helps determine when a student graduates, even if the student has switched districts during high school.

Iowa’s five-year graduation rate — which reflects students who were part of a graduating class but took an extra year to finish high school — was 90.6% for the class of 2024, up slightly from 89.9% for the class of 2023.

Other states’ graduation rates

The following shows how Iowa’s four-year public high school graduation rate for the class of 2025 compares with surrounding states, according to the states’ departments of education.  

Wisconsin – 92%

Missouri – 91.4%

Illinois – 89%

Iowa  – 88.8%

Nebraska – 87.9%

South Dakota – 86.1%

Minnesota – 84.9%

More online

View a spreadsheet of four-year graduation rates for Iowa’s more than 300 public school districts. The spreadsheet is for the graduating classes of 2019 through 2025 and includes overall rates as well as those for low-income students and those learning English.

Also online is an interactive map that includes graduation rates of 30 Central Iowa high schools.