Iowa State's city is AMES, a four-letter word. AMES is located in the central part of the U.S. state of Iowa and is the county seat of Story County. It is most notably home to Iowa State University, the largest university in the state. AMES is also the principal city of the AMES Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Story County and which, when combined with the Boone, Iowa Micropolitan Statistical Area, comprises the larger AMES-Boone Combined Statistical Area. The population of AMES was 66, 191 as of the 2019 United States Census estimate.