Iowa
Source: IPEDS Completions, 3-yr avg AY 2022–25 (NCES; 2024–25 provisional), bachelor’s degrees, CIP 14 + 11; China 33.2%: PRC Ministry of Education, 2022 bachelor’s graduates by discipline (NSF NCSES S&E Indicators Fig. HED-30: 32.8%, 2020); Population: Census NST-EST2025.
Iowa at China’s rate would graduate 7,079 engineers a year. It graduates 2,446.
Iowa produces 2,446 engineering and computer science bachelor's degrees a year out of 21,322 total, a mid-pack engineering producer, from 26 institutions. At China's rate it would produce 7,079. Output is shrinking (-4.2% over three years). Gap Score: 35% of the China benchmark. Its own economy is projected to open 3,750 engineering, computing and technician jobs a year through 2034; in-state degrees, associate and bachelor's together, cover 76% of them.
The gap against China’s benchmark
Three-year trend: eng+CS share of degrees
Iowa is missing 4,633 engineers a year at China's rate, roughly 3x the annual output of Iowa State University.
Where Iowa’s engineers are made.
26 institutions produce engineering or computer science bachelor’s degrees in Iowa. The top 8 account for 92% of output.
Every producing institution. Circle area = eng+CS bachelor’s degrees per year
Top producers
| # | Institution | Eng+CS / yr | % of its degrees |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Iowa State University | 1,518 | 26.3% |
| 2 | University of Iowa | 499 | 9.7% |
| 3 | Grinnell College | 54 | 13.2% |
| 4 | Dordt University | 49 | 14.8% |
| 5 | Saint Ambrose University | 37 | 7.0% |
| 6 | Drake University | 36 | 5.0% |
| 7 | University of Northern Iowa | 31 | 1.6% |
| 8 | Wartburg College | 29 | 8.7% |
Jobs vs. degrees
Iowa's own labor-market projection, 2024–2034, for engineers, computer occupations and engineering technicians, against the degrees the state produces at every level.
Openings against output
Where the openings are
| Occupation | Openings / yr |
|---|---|
| Software Developers | 440 |
| Computer User Support Specialists | 350 |
| Computer Systems Analysts | 310 |
| Mechanical Engineers | 290 |
| Industrial Engineers | 280 |
| Computer Occupations, All Other | 180 |
Coverage: degrees ÷ openings
Openings are the state labor agency’s own 10-year projection: new jobs plus replacing workers who retire or leave the field (BLS method). Not every opening goes to a new graduate, so this is a coverage measure; it does not count vacant positions. Occupations: engineers (SOC 17-2), computer occupations (SOC 15-12) and engineering technicians (SOC 17-3, the associate-degree tier), the jobs CIP 14 + 11 degrees feed; degrees here include associate degrees to match. Source: Iowa labor-market projections via Projections Central (U.S. Dept. of Labor).
Iowa's data-center incentives create few engineering jobs
Iowa has become one of the country's densest data-center states, with more than 100 facilities, roughly 70 in the Des Moines metro, and a permanent sales-tax exemption that cost $151M in FY2020 alone. The campuses hire thousands of construction workers and between about 30 and 120 permanent jobs each, while Iowa State's engineering graduates keep leaving.
The drain.
Iowa educates engineers for other states. Only about half of Regent-university graduates are still working in Iowa a decade out, and the state posts the Midwest's worst net loss of young degree holders.
Sources: The Gazette; Common Sense Institute Iowa; Iowa Capital Dispatch (NCHEMS 'Higher Education and Workforce Alignment in Iowa,' Mar 2026)
Who’s covering it.
Reporters already cover this, but no one has combined it into a single number the way the Index does.
The fix, in Iowa.
Tie the data-center exemption to engineering seats
Iowa's data-center sales-tax break has no per-company disclosure and cost $151M in a single year for campuses that keep 31 to 120 permanent staff. Tie any renewal to a Digital ROTC cohort: each exempted campus underwrites service-for-tuition seats at Kirkwood, DMACC or Iowa Western for students who commit to Iowa engineering and IT jobs.
Extend Last-Dollar to engineering pathways
Future Ready Iowa's Last-Dollar Scholarship already covers tuition gaps in high-demand fields at the state's community colleges. Add a service term: two years working for an Iowa employer, utility or data-center operator after an engineering-technology or CS associate degree, with transfer credit into Iowa State.
Pay Iowa State engineers to stay
Iowa State turns out 1,633 engineering and CS graduates a year yet only about half of ISU alumni are still working in Iowa a decade later, and University of Iowa retention is under 40%. A state-funded ROTC-style contract, tuition forgiveness in exchange for four years at Collins Aerospace, Deere, Alliant or an Iowa startup, converts the $255,713 the state already spends per student into a worker who stays.
What Digital ROTC would fund
Digital ROTC: federal student loans that cover two years of engineering, computer science, or cybersecurity school at a community college, whether those years end in an associate degree or transfer into a bachelor’s program. The loans are forgiven in full after 24 to 36 months of service in government technology roles. In Iowa, 14% of engineering-track credentials are associate degrees today. Digital ROTC is built to expand that community-college route.