It is located 7 miles (11 km) northeast of Lubbock near the intersection of Farm to Market Road 400 and US 62/US 82/SH 114.

Idalou began as a settlement around a depot on the South Plains and Santa Fe Railway in the early 1910s, and within a few years had a one-room schoolhouse and several businesses.

Idalou has a post office, library, city park and pool, EMS station, fire department, co-op cotton gin, grocery store, and many other businesses.

[5] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.0 square mile (2.5 km2), all land.

[6] As of the 2020 United States census, there were 2,193 people, 736 households, and 466 families residing in the city.

It's also featured in the song "Amarillo Highway (for Dave Hickey)" by Terry Allen on the album Lubbock (on everything) (1979), in the opening lyric, "Well, I'm a high straight in Plainview, side bet in Idalou, and a fresh deck in New Deal."