[2] The county was formed on February 17, 1843[3] and named for Taimah, a leader of the Meskwaki people.

[13] As of the census[14] of 2000, there were 17,767 people, 7,018 households, and 4,968 families residing in the county.

25.30% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.70% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

The largest of which is South Tama Community School District, at the 3A designation.

Lastly both GMG and Meskwaki Settlement School with an eight-man designation.

For the next seven election cycles, from 1988 to 2012, Tama County backed the Democratic candidate in each election, although George W. Bush came extremely close to winning the county in both 2000 and 2004, losing by slim margins of just 11 and 31 votes respectively.

Though Trump's margin of victory dropped slightly to just over 19% in 2020, he increased his vote share to almost 59%, the best vote share for a candidate of either party in Tama County since the 1964 landslide victory of Lyndon B. Johnson.