The citizens of Council Bluffs are slightly better educated than the national average of 21.84% for all cities and towns, with 21.70% of adults in Council Bluffs having a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.

The per capita income in Council Bluffs in 2022 was $34,252, which is lower middle income relative to Iowa, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $137,008 for a family of four. However, Council Bluffs contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Council Bluffs is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Council Bluffs home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Council Bluffs residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Council Bluffs also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 10.56% of the city鈥檚 residents. Important ancestries of people in Council Bluffs include German, Irish, English, Danish, and Italian.

The most common language spoken in Council Bluffs is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Polish.