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Place dossier plate
SheetAL-ALEXANDER-CITY-AL · Alexander City, AL 14,686 pop · income 10th pct · 12 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Alexander City
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Alexander City on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Millfield · lowest
42,356
Millfield · lowest
42,356 median HH income
18.0% of the leader · rank #1
Alexander City · this city
42,367
Alexander City · this city
42,367 median HH income
18.0% of the leader · rank #2
Murphysboro · near
42,367
Murphysboro · near
42,367 median HH income
18.0% of the leader · rank #3
Springfield · near
42,368
Springfield · near
42,368 median HH income
18.0% of the leader · rank #4
Harvey · near
42,368
Harvey · near
42,368 median HH income
18.0% of the leader · rank #5
Crescent · near
42,371
Crescent · near
42,371 median HH income
18.0% of the leader · rank #6
Broadlands · highest
235,491
Broadlands · highest
235,491 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Alexander City on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 14,686.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Alexander City - the verdict
Nationally, Alexander City sits in the 10th percentile for household income and the 5th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
10th
percentile, household income
23rd
percentile, home value
1st
percentile, median rent
5th
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Alexander City, AL
Alexander City is a small town in Alabama, home to 14,686 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Alexander City brings in $42,367 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 19.2%. Typical homes in Alexander City are valued around $135,900, and the median resident age is 42.8 years. About 17.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 48.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 76 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 347% from five years earlier. Alexander City's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 4612.3 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 62.8°F with 57.0 inches of precipitation per year and 0.7 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in Alabama run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Alabama at 88.8 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Below Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $936 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $245 across Alabama, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Natural-hazard exposure scores 61.5 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Alexander City's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from population change to work and mobility to reported crime to schools and households to climate and hazard context to housing and income to within-city variation to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Alexander City, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Population change
Is Alexander City growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -318 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 76 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
What does the journey to work look like in Alexander City?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 85.7%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
What can 12 Census tracts reveal inside Alexander City?
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
PlainCities matches 12 Census tracts to this city.
Which cities make useful reference points for Alexander City?
Within Alabama, the closest population matches are Fort Payne (14,886 residents, $48,623 income); Jasper (14,480 residents, $66,250 income); Ozark (14,348 residents, $46,951 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Cedar Lake, IN (14,686 residents); Glens Falls, NY (14,678 residents); Broadlands, VA (14,673 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Alexander City?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 4612.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 102% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
3588.1
Violent rate
1024.2
Total reported rate
4612.3
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the education layer cover for Alexander City?
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 17.4% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
Matched public schools
5
Bachelor's degree+
17.4%
Poverty estimate
19.2%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What physical conditions frame life in Alexander City?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 62.8°F, with 57.0 inches of precipitation and 0.7 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Alabama is 61.5 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
Mean temperature
62.8°F
Annual precipitation
57.0 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
61.5
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
How far does income reach against housing in Alexander City?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 19.2%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
Household income
$42,367
Home value
$135,900
Value / income
3.2×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 19.2% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
88.8 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Alabama average
F
City profile score · Alexander City, AL
28/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living A+
88.8 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Bachelor's+ share F
17.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
19.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$42,367
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
1,024 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Alexander City profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 90/100 (A+) · 88.8 index
Bachelor's+ share: 27/100 (F) · 17.4%
Poverty rate: 15/100 (F) · 19.2%
Household income: 10/100 (F) · $42,367
Violent crime: 0/100 (F) · 1,024 /100k
Where Alexander City sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Alexander City's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Alexander City highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Alexander City, AL (this city): home $135,900, crime 4,612/100k
Cedar Lake, IN : home $259,900, crime 328/100k
Glens Falls, NY : home $195,800, crime 819/100k
Sterling, IL : home $107,800, crime 1,653/100k
Lockhart, TX : home $218,400, crime 1,706/100k
Fort Payne, AL : home $158,100, crime 1,775/100k
Jasper, AL : home $208,000, crime 4,751/100k
Ozark, AL : home $138,600, crime 3,450/100k
Jacksonville, AL : home $179,600, crime 2,268/100k
Talladega, AL : home $116,600, crime 3,982/100k
How does Alexander City compare to other US cities?
Here's how Alexander City stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income10% higher than other cities
Home value23% pricier than other cities
Median rent1% pricier than other cities
Safety5% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Alabama, Alexander City ranks #211 of 222 Alabama cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Alexander City against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Alabama only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Alabama-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Alexander City near the bottom of Alabama's cities
Among the 556 Alabama cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Alexander City ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Alexander City only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#383 of 530
28th percentile in Alabama
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 556
0th percentile in Alabama
Median Home Value
#277 of 517
46th percentile in Alabama
Poverty Rate
#135 of 556
76th percentile in Alabama
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#235 of 556
58th percentile in Alabama
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Alabama only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
10th percentile nationally for median household income · 5th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Alexander City's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Alexander City's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Alexander City's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$135,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 77% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Alexander City's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#7,734 of 15,516
More affordable than 50% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,185 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.2×, Alexander City sits in the moderate band:
national rank #7,734 of 15,516 and #1,185 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$42,367Alexander City, AL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Alexander City, AL median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Alexander City, AL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)17.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)19.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)48.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
14,686
Median Income
$42,367
Median Home Value
$135,900
Median Age
42.8
Poverty Rate
19.2%
Labor force participation
48.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
17.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
4612.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
1024.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3588.1
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Climate
Avg Temperature
62.8°F
Annual Precipitation
57.0"
Annual Snowfall
0.7"
Schools
Total Schools
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Alexander City's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
14,833 residents
2021
14,700 residents
2022
14,615 residents
2023
14,503 residents
2024
14,498 residents
2025
14,515 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
76
housing units authorized
Single-Family
76
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
5.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
17
17
0
$3.6M
2020
28
28
0
$12.1M
2021
98
42
56
$22.7M
2022
33
33
0
$16.3M
2023
54
54
0
$51.2M
2024
76
76
0
$67.2M
Permit volume increased 347% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
85.7%
Carpool
9.0%
Public Transit
0.3%
Walk
0.7%
Work from Home
3.9%
Based on 5,540 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Alabama statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $245
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Alabama at $245 (electricity about $138 , water and sewer about $45 ).
These are Alabama statewide averages, not a meter reading for Alexander City. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Alabama's BEA cost-of-living index is 88.8 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Alexander City is $936/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Alabama statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 61.5 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Alabama statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Alexander City sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Alexander City compares to similar-size Alabama cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.