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is a city in Polk and Dallas counties in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 29,072; a special census taken by the city in 2005 counted 35,904 residents. It is part of the Des Moines–West Des Moines Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Urbandale incorporated as a city on April 16, 1917. In its early days Urbandale served as a streetcar suburb of Des Moines with four coal mines. Urbandale served as the end of the "Urbandale Line" after plans to build a railroad from Des Moines to Woodward were abandoned because of right-of-way issues. The coal mines had closed by the end of the 1940s while streetcar service ended in 1951.
In 1920, shortly after the city incorporated, Urbandale had 298 people. Its population in 1950 was 1,777, but the city grew rapidly after that along with the rest of Des Moines' suburbs. By 1970 Urbandale had 14,434 people, and in 2000 it had 29,072. Although most of the city's developed area is in Polk County, Urbandale has expanded westward into Dallas County in recent years.
While Urbandale is primarily a residential city, other development has increased in recent years, particularly in industrial parks along I-35/I-80. Urbandale also features 850 acres (3.4 km²) of parks and 33 miles (53 km) of recreational trails that connect to other trails in the Des Moines area.
Urbandale is also the home of Living History Farms, where Pope John Paul II spoke to a crowd estimated at 350,000 on October 4, 1979; Buccaneer Arena, home to the Des Moines Buccaneers hockey team; and the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), which oversees operations for its multi-state games, although Powerball is now drawn in Florida.
magazine ranked Urbandale 53rd on its list of the "100 Best Places to Live" in the United States. The July 2006 Money Magazine list dropped the city from the list. Urbandale reappeared on the list in the July 2007 issue of Money Magazine as the 39th best place to live.
A September 2008 Business Week magazine survey ranks Urbandale 12th among the nation’s top 20 communities likely to face trouble ahead from the still-brewing Wall Street financial crises. This is due to the large number of mortgage and banking based facilities in the city.