Scott County is part of the Quad Cities Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), located in eastern Iowa and western Illinois on the Mississippi River, 165 miles west of Chicago. The Quad Cities MSA consists of Scott County in Iowa and Rock Island, Henry, and Mercer Counties in Illinois. Combined with the more than 172,000 Scott County residents, it measures over 380,000 people in population.

The Quad Cities is midway between Minneapolis on the north and St. Louis on the south; Chicago on the east and Des Moines on the west. The area's 300-mile market of nearly 36.5 million people comprises nearly 15% of the nation's population. This makes it the largest 300-mile market west of Chicago.