The Quad Cities: vibrant, large, diverse
It’s impossible to give a complete picture of life here in a few hundred words, so we picked four things you might not know about the Quad Cities area.
It’s bigger than you thought
The Quad Cities is a six-county, bi-state region that’s home to 470,000 people. The four small cities that form the core of the metropolitan area (Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa, and Moline and Rock Island in Illinois) have about 220,000 people.
We’re about an hour east of Iowa City, home to the University of Iowa, and two and a half hours west of Chicago. All told, there are about 37,000,000 people within 300 miles of campus.
It’s economically vibrant
The Quad Cities is home to Fortune 500 corporations such John Deere & Company, 3M and Arconic (formerly Alcoa), along with the Rock Island Arsenal, a major military installation, and two large regional health systems. These chief employers are joined by 30,000 additional businesses, creating a robust and growing economy.
Because Augustana College is a member of the Development Association of Rock Island (DARI), employees are entitled to participate in Live Work Rock Island to get support buying a home in Rock Island.
Live-Work RI provides:
- 5% down payment assistance, based on the home's purchase price
- Up to $1,500 in closing cost assistance
To date, Live-Work RI has helped 482 homebuyers purchase homes in Rock Island in nearly every neighborhood within the city limits.
It’s culturally vibrant
The region’s defining feature is the Mississippi River, which passes through the heart of the cities. Mississippi River Traveler ranked ours as the second best riverfront along the Mississippi. That provides a focus for music festivals (blues, jazz, and pops), cultural activities and the conversion of many old industrial and commercial buildings into modern loft apartments within a few blocks of the river.
We’re home to more than 10 micro-breweries or brew pubs, a winery (Wide River), a distillery (Mississippi River Distilling), and a lot of venues for live music and socializing, from the bluesy Redstone Room to the often raucous Raccoon Motel.
Into indie music? You’re in luck. Codfish Hollow — it’s an actual barn in the middle of a farm — has a huge and joyful cult following as a place for live music.
It welcomes a diverse array of people and experiences
The Quad Cities is a vibrant and diverse community with large native Latino/Hispanic, black and Asian communities, and a great number of international residents and visitors.
The area has a total population of about 470,000; of those, about 45,000 are Latino/Hispanic residents, well represented in organizations ranging from LULAC, Mercado on Fifth, Viva Quad Cities and the Quad Cities Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, to school boards and city councils.
An additional 30,000 residents are African-American, complemented by large South and East Asian communities. There’s a large, active LQBTQ community whose community engagement is expressed through Quad Citians Affirming Diversity and Clock, Inc.
The Quad Cities hosts a major Army installation (the Rock Island Arsenal) and is home to the John Deere world quarters and seven colleges and universities. There are, as a result, a large number of international visitors to the region. Those include visiting students and scholars (for example, about 20 percent of Augustana’s entering class in 2026 are international students), government officials and business executives. The area is used to hosting international visitors, and is well-equipped to do so.
Augustana’s faculty and professionals are among the leaders in expanding perspectives and opportunities here.