Persia, Iowa was $14,859. About 8.3% of families and 10.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.6% of those under age 18 and 13.1% of those age 65 or over. In September 2012, BBC Persian channel broadcast a short coverage of the city of Persia. This coverage was about the city itself and why it is named Persia. The mayor and some locals were interviewed as a part of this coverage. Persia is referenced, along with the nearby Nishnabotna River and Interstate 680, on the C.W. McCall song "Four Wheel Drive" from his 1975 album "Wolf Creek Pass". Persia,
Jesus Was a Country Boy called “Jesus Was A Country Boy”, it’s very different, kind of a bold statement." The male narrator explains that Jesus was a country boy because of the lifestyle Jesus lived which he compares to that of a "country boy". Dan MacIntosh of "Country Standard Time" wrote "Walker is equally inept at theology, as this album's title track fails to help explain why bad things happen to good people, and "Jesus Was A Country Boy" isn't going to bring in any new converts." Cheryl Harvey Hill of "Country Stars Online" wrote that the song has "A very powerful old message is