The Quad Cities is a region of five cities in the U.S. states of Iowa and Illinois: Davenport and Bettendorf in southeastern Iowa, and Rock Island, Moline, and East Moline in northwestern Illinois. These cities are the center of the Quad Cities metropolitan area, a region within the Mississippi River Valley, which as of 2025, had a population estimate of 380,452 and a Combined Statistical Area (CSA) population of 468,307, making it the 148th-largest MSA and 91st-largest CSA in the nation.List of Combined Statistical Areas
History Early history Before European settlers came to inhabit the Quad Cities, the confluence of rivers had attracted many varying cultures of indigenous peoples, who used the waterways and riverbanks for their settlements for thousands of years. At the time of European encounter, it was a home and principal trading place of the Sauk and Fox tribes of Native Americans. Saukenuk was the principal village of the Sauk tribe and birthplace of its 19th-century war chief, Black Hawk. In 1832, Sauk chief Keokuk and General Winfield Scott signed a treaty in Davenport after the US defeated the Sauk and their allies in the Black Hawk War. The treaty resulted in the Native Americans ceding of land to the United States in exchange for a much smaller reservation elsewhere. Black Hawk State Historic Site in Rock Island preserves part of historic Saukenuk and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The history of urban settlements in the Quad Cities was stimulated by riverboat traffic. For between LeClaire, Iowa, and Rock Island, the Mississippi River flowed across a series of finger-like rock projections protruding from either bank. These rapids were difficult for steamboats to traverse. As demand for river-based transportation increased along the upper Mississippi, the navigability of the river throughout the "Rock Island Rapids" became a greater concern. Over time, a minor industry grew up in the area to meet the steamboats' needs. Boat crews needed rest areas to stop before encountering the rapids, places to hire expert pilots such as Phillip Suiter, who was the first licensed pilot on the upper Mississippi River, to guide the boat through the rocky waters, or, when the water was low, places where goods could be removed and transported by wagon on land past the rapids. Today, the rocks are submerged six feet underwater by a lake formed by two locks and dams.
As the Industrial Revolution developed in the United States, many enterprising industrialists looked to the Mississippi River as a promising source of power generation. The combination of energy and easy access to river transportation attracted entrepreneurs and industrialists to the Quad Cities for development. In 1848, John Deere moved his plough business to Moline. His business was incorporated in 1868. John Deere is the largest employer today in the Quad Cities.
The first railroad bridge built across the Mississippi River connected Davenport and Rock Island in 1856. It was built by the Rock Island Railroad Company and replaced the slow seasonal ferry service and winter ice bridges as the primary modes of transportation across the river. Steamboaters saw the nationwide railroads as a threat to their business. On May 6, 1856, just weeks after completion of the bridge, an angry steamboater crashed the Effie Afton into it. John Hurd, the owner of the Effie Afton, filed a lawsuit against the Rock Island Railroad Company in Hurd v. Rock Island Bridge Company. The Rock Island Railroad Company selected Abraham Lincoln as their trial lawyer and won after he took the case to the US Supreme Court. Expert riverboat pilot Phillip Suiter was one of his witnesses. It was a pivotal trial in Lincoln's career.
Evolution of an identity
After the Civil War, the region began to gain a common identity. The river towns that were thoughtfully planned and competently led flourished, while other settlements, usually get-rich-quick schemes for speculators, failed to pan out. By World War I, the towns of Davenport, Rock Island, and Moline had begun to style themselves as the "Tri-Cities", a cluster of three more-or-less equally-sized river communities growing around the small bend of the Mississippi River where it flows west. But with the growth of Rock Island County, during the 1930s the term "Quad Cities" came into vogue, as East Moline was given "equal status". Despite the fact that the region had earned the name "Quad Cities", the National Basketball League and then the National Basketball Association had a franchise in Moline, Illinois, from 1946 to 1951 called the "Tri-Cities Blackhawks". Then, with the opening of an Alcoa (now Arconic) plant east of Davenport in 1948, the town of Bettendorf underwent so much growth that many people in the community discussed the adoption of the name "Quint Cities", but by this time, the name "Quad Cities" had become known well beyond the area, and "Quint Cities" never caught on, despite the efforts of WOC-TV (now KWQC-TV) and others. Consequently, when Bettendorf passed East Moline in size, there was some debate about whether Bettendorf had "displaced" East Moline. Instead, local officials, such as the Chamber of Commerce, have chosen an inclusive approach, maintaining the name "Quad Cities" yet including all five cities.
Since the 1980s Beginning in the late 1970s, economic conditions caused major industrial restructuring, which disrupted the basis of the region's economy. The major companies, agricultural manufacturers, ceased or scaled back operations in the Quad Cities. Factories which closed included International Harvester (International Motors) in Rock Island and Case IH in Bettendorf. Moline-based John Deere cut its labor headcount by one half. Later in the 1980s, Caterpillar closed its factories at Mount Joy and Bettendorf.
Since the 1990s, the Quad Cities governments, businesses, non-profits and residents have worked hard to redevelop the region.
Examples of revitalization and rebirth include: Davenport's River Renaissance (a downtown revitalization project that includes a river music history center), an ag-tech venture capital campus, and the Figge Art Museum opened or were completed during the first decade of the 21st century. Moline has invested in what was once a robust downtown. The "John Deere Commons" and the Vibrant Arena at The MARK (formerly "The MARK of the Quad Cities", the "iWireless Center", and the "TaxSlayer Center") both opened during the 1990s. In 2007, Davenport and Rock Island competed for and won the title of "most livable small city" from the National Council of Mayors, based upon an unfunded proposal called RiverVision. In 2008 Bettendorf was ranked by CNN as one of the ten best places to buy a house in the United States. In 2010, the Quad Cities were named "the most affordable metro" by Forbes magazine. In 2012, Davenport housing market ranked second in the nation beating the housing bubble, due to its lack of foreclosures and their low unemployment. In 2012, the Quad Cities Metropolitan Area was ranked among the fastest-growing areas in the nation in the growth of high-tech jobs. In 2012, the Quad Cities were named the "2012 All American City" In 2013, Modern Woodman Park was voted the best minor league ballpark in America.
Proposed mergers Over the years, several communities in the Quad Cities region have proposed or performed mergers. As it grew, Davenport annexed the communities of Rockingham, Nahant, Probstei, East Davenport, Oakdale, Cawiezeel, Blackhawk, Mt. Joy, Green Tree, and others. Bettendorf annexed portions of Pleasant Valley in the 1970s. In 1987, Rock Island, Moline, East Moline, Milan, Carbon Cliff, Hampton, Coal Valley and Silvis considered a super-city merger which would have seen the Illinois cities become the second-largest city in the state, but the proposal ultimately failed. Moline and East Moline considered a merger in 1997. That same year, Green Rock and Colona did merge. Bettendorf and Riverdale also considered a merger.
Geography The Quad Cities is located at the confluence of the Rock and Mississippi rivers, approximately west of Chicago, and forms the largest metropolitan area along the Mississippi River between Minneapolis–Saint Paul and the St. Louis metropolitan area. Interstate 80 crosses the Mississippi River here. The Quad Cities Metropolitan Area consists of three counties: Scott County in Iowa, and Rock Island County and Henry County in Illinois. The Quad Cities Metropolitan Area is also considered part of the Great Lakes Megalopolis.America 2050: Megaregions: Great Lakes. Regional Plan Association.Regional Plan Association (2008). America 2050: An Infrastructure Vision for 21st Century America. New York: Regional Plan Association.
The Quad Cities area is distinctive because the Mississippi River flows from east to west as it passes through the heart of the area; the Iowa cities of Davenport and Bettendorf are located due north of Rock Island and Moline, respectively.
Demographics According to the 2010 United States census Count, the metropolitan area grew to 471,551. Note: Quad City population is equivalent to adding up the populations of Scott County, Iowa and Rock Island, Mercer, and Henry Counties in Illinois. As of the 2000 census, a total of 96,495 households and 60,535 families resided in the area.
Race and ethnicity The racial makeup of the area is 90.6% White (410,861), 3.7% Black or African American (27,757), 0.6% American Indian and Alaskan Native (1,255), 1.0% Asian (6,624), 0.03% Pacific Islander (156), and 2.0% from two or more races (11,929). 7.1% of the population is Hispanic or Latino of any race (37,070).https://www.quadcitieschamber.com/Quad Cities Chamber-Quad Cities Demographics.pdf The predominant ethnicities in the Quad Cities are of northern European descent, including German, Irish, and English, as well Scandinavian (Mostly Swedish and Norwegian) and Dutch. The primary minority groups in the area are African-Americans, which in Davenport make up the third largest black population in the state of Iowa, a community dating back to the 1830s when Iowa was a free territory. Many of the metro area's African-American residents have roots in the Southern and Border states of the U.S., including Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky and Virginia. The most significant Asian-American populations are South Asian and Vietnamese American.
Religion According to resources, Christianity is the largest religion practiced in the area. However, the two states have a different population of Christian groups. In Davenport and Bettendorf, Catholics make up an 18.5% plurality, but Protestants with 15.1% Mainline and 11.6% Evangelical make up large minorities as well. The Black Protestants on the Iowa side comes in at 1.2%. On the Illinois side, between Rock Island, Moline, and East Moline, Catholicism is less prevalent at 12.4%, and at 12.5% Evangelical and 11.0% Mainline have smaller declines.
The Jewish population is about 500–600, which is down from about 1,800–2,000 in the 1950s and 1960s.
Metropolitan area
The Quad Cities metropolitan area, more formally known as the Davenport–Moline–Rock Island, IA–IL Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), is the metropolitan area associated with the Quad Cities in the U.S. states of Iowa and Illinois. The Davenport–Moline–Rock Island MSA consists of four counties – Scott County in Iowa and Henry, Mercer, and Rock Island counties in Illinois – and had an estimated population of 380,452 as of 2025.
The Quad Cities metropolitan area is also considered part of the Great Lakes Megalopolis, and is the largest metropolitan area along the Mississippi River in Iowa and between Minneapolis–Saint Paul and the St. Louis metropolitan area.Great Lakes Megalopolis
Population by County CountyStateSeat2025 estimate2020 censusChangeAreaDensityScottIowaDavenport Rock IslandIllinoisRock Island HenryIllinoisCambridge MercerIllinoisAledo Total