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Place dossier plate
SheetAL-ANNISTON-AL · Anniston, AL 21,377 pop · income 12th pct
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 Anniston
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Anniston on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Breckenridge… · lowest
44,800
Breckenridge… · lowest
44,800 median HH income
23.4% of the leader · rank #1
Lake · near
44,803
Lake · near
44,803 median HH income
23.4% of the leader · rank #2
Tamaqua · near
44,803
Tamaqua · near
44,803 median HH income
23.4% of the leader · rank #3
Anniston · this city
44,806
Anniston · this city
44,806 median HH income
23.4% of the leader · rank #4
Vowinckel · near
44,808
Vowinckel · near
44,808 median HH income
23.4% of the leader · rank #5
Morristown · near
44,811
Morristown · near
44,811 median HH income
23.4% of the leader · rank #6
Mountain Brook · highest
191,128
Mountain Brook · highest
191,128 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 Anniston 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: 21,377.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Anniston - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Anniston places in the 12th percentile for household income and the 3rd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
12th
percentile, household income
24th
percentile, home value
1st
percentile, median rent
3rd
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: Anniston, AL
Alabama's Anniston is a small city, with 21,377 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $44,806 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 13.2%. Anniston's housing stock carries a median value of $141,600, and the median resident age is 43.5 years. About 21.5% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 45.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 11 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 450% from five years earlier. Anniston's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 5210.9 in FBI UCR data, above the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $936 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Alabama run around $245, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. The average commute for Anniston workers runs 22.2 minutes, with 80.1% driving alone and 4.5% working from home. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 61.5 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Anniston'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 work and mobility to population change to housing and income to reported crime to comparison shortlist to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Anniston, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, commute-mode shares, annual population history, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Anniston?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 80.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 22.2 minutes.
Is Anniston 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 -574 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 11 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
How far does income reach against housing in Anniston?
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 13.2%, 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Anniston?
Within Alabama, the closest population matches are Helena (21,452 residents, $109,590 income); Oxford (22,063 residents, $70,065 income); Mountain Brook (22,160 residents, $191,128 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Granite Bay, CA (21,378 residents); East Patchogue, NY (21,364 residents); Otsego, MN (21,358 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 Anniston?
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 5210.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 128% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
4365.4
Violent rate
845.5
Total reported rate
5210.9
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
The NCES join finds 15 public schools within the city match. 21.5% 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
15
Bachelor's degree+
21.5%
Poverty estimate
13.2%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
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
21.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
13.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$44,806
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
846 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Anniston profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 90/100 (A+) · 88.8 index
Bachelor's+ share: 39/100 (F) · 21.5%
Poverty rate: 27/100 (F) · 13.2%
Household income: 13/100 (F) · $44,806
Violent crime: 0/100 (F) · 846 /100k
Where Anniston sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Anniston'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 - Anniston highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Anniston, AL (this city): home $141,600, crime 5,211/100k
New Hope, MN : home $314,600, crime 2,131/100k
Ashland, KY : home $125,300, crime 2,703/100k
Stephenville, TX : home $226,300, crime 1,341/100k
Helena, AL : home $292,700, crime 507/100k
Oxford, AL : home $164,700, crime 2,804/100k
Mountain Brook, AL : home $891,300, crime 838/100k
Foley, AL : home $260,100, crime 1,722/100k
Albertville, AL : home $158,900, crime 1,996/100k
Fairhope, AL : home $406,500, crime 1,261/100k
How does Anniston compare to other US cities?
Where Anniston sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income12% higher than other cities
Home value24% pricier than other cities
Median rent1% pricier than other cities
Safety3% 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, Anniston ranks #216 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 Anniston 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 Anniston near the bottom of Alabama's cities
Among the 556 Alabama cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Anniston ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Anniston only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#354 of 530
33rd percentile in Alabama
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 556
0th percentile in Alabama
Median Home Value
#264 of 517
49th percentile in Alabama
Poverty Rate
#245 of 556
56th percentile in Alabama
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#168 of 556
70th 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
12th percentile nationally for median household income · 3rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Anniston's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Anniston'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 Anniston's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$141,600Among the most affordablemore affordable than 76% 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
Anniston'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
#7,492 of 15,516
More affordable than 52% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,130 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.2×, Anniston sits in the moderate band:
national rank #7,492 of 15,516 and #1,130 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
$44,806Anniston, AL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Anniston, 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 Anniston, AL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)21.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)13.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)45.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
21,377
Median Income
$44,806
Median Home Value
$141,600
Median Age
43.5
Poverty Rate
13.2%
Labor force participation
45.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
21.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
5210.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
845.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
4365.4
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.
Schools
Total Schools
15
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Anniston's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
21,504 residents
2021
21,351 residents
2022
21,186 residents
2023
21,163 residents
2024
21,094 residents
2025
20,930 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
11
housing units authorized
Single-Family
11
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
2
2
0
$0.2M
2020
3
3
0
$0.3M
2021
3
3
0
$0.3M
2022
5
5
0
$0.4M
2023
11
11
0
$3.7M
2024
11
11
0
$3.2M
Permit volume increased 450% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
22.2 minutes
Drive Alone
80.1%
Carpool
11.4%
Public Transit
0.5%
Walk
2.1%
Work from Home
4.5%
Other
1.4%
Based on 8,182 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 Anniston. 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 Anniston 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 Anniston sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Anniston 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, 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.