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Place dossier plate
SheetAL-ASHFORD-AL · Ashford, AL 2,438 pop · income 37th 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 Ashford
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Ashford on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Greensboro · lowest
31,207
Greensboro · lowest
31,207 median HH income
39.4% of the leader · rank #1
Apalachicola · near
61,083
Apalachicola · near
61,083 median HH income
77.0% of the leader · rank #2
Inman · near
61,083
Inman · near
61,083 median HH income
77.0% of the leader · rank #3
New Holstein · near
61,086
New Holstein · near
61,086 median HH income
77.0% of the leader · rank #4
Ashford · this city
61,087
Ashford · this city
61,087 median HH income
77.0% of the leader · rank #5
Stratford · near
61,090
Stratford · near
61,090 median HH income
77.0% of the leader · rank #6
Brookwood · highest
79,297
Brookwood · highest
79,297 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 Ashford 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: 2,438.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Ashford - the verdict
Ashford ranks in the 37th percentile for household income and the 83rd percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
37th
percentile, household income
33rd
percentile, home value
1st
percentile, median rent
83rd
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: Ashford, AL
Alabama's Ashford is a small town, with 2,438 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Ashford households earn a median of $61,087 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 11.3%. Home values in Ashford run a median of $167,500, and the median resident age is 37.4 years. About 15.5% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 52.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 32 residential building permits were authorized in Ashford (Building Boom), up 300% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Ashford reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 551.5 in FBI UCR data, below 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: the state registers 88.8 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $936 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Alabama's average monthly utility costs around $245 (state average). 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 Ashford'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 housing and income to population change to reported crime to comparison shortlist to schools and households to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Ashford, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history.
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. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Ashford?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 11.3%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +212 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +9.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 32 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Ashford?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 551.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 76% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Ashford?
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.
Within Alabama, the closest population matches are Guin (2,469 residents, $47,358 income); Lipscomb (2,407 residents, $45,792 income); Abbeville (2,470 residents, $32,778 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Lake Placid, FL (2,438 residents); Sky Valley, CA (2,437 residents); Claxton, GA (2,439 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.
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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Ashford?
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.
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 15.5% 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.
Poverty estimate
11.3%
Bachelor's degree+
15.5%
Matched public schools
3
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Ashford?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 85.0%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
Drive alone
85.0%
Work from home
2.4%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 988 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 11.3% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
88.8 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Alabama average
C-
City profile score · Ashford, AL
52/100
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.
Violent crime B+
85 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$61,087
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
11.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
15.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Ashford profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 90/100 (A+) · 88.8 index
Violent crime: 75/100 (B+) · 85 /100k
Household income: 36/100 (F) · $61,087
Poverty rate: 35/100 (F) · 11.3%
Bachelor's+ share: 21/100 (F) · 15.5%
Where Ashford sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Ashford'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 - Ashford highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Ashford, AL (this city): home $167,500, crime 552/100k
Claxton, GA : home $152,300, crime 3,291/100k
Hughesville, PA : home $201,300, crime 523/100k
Guin, AL : home $111,400, crime 2,296/100k
Lipscomb, AL : home $93,900, crime 404/100k
Abbeville, AL : home $98,000, crime 1,928/100k
Brookwood, AL : home $181,900, crime 1,446/100k
Creola, AL : home $187,500, crime 809/100k
How does Ashford compare to other US cities?
Where Ashford sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income37% higher than other cities
Home value33% pricier than other cities
Median rent1% pricier than other cities
Safety83% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Alabama and the picture shifts: Ashford ranks #28 of 222 Alabama cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Ashford 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 Ashford near the bottom of Alabama's cities
Among the 556 Alabama cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Ashford ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Ashford only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#191 of 530
64th percentile in Alabama
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 556
0th percentile in Alabama
Median Home Value
#191 of 517
63rd percentile in Alabama
Poverty Rate
#282 of 556
49th percentile in Alabama
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#277 of 556
50th 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
37th percentile nationally for median household income · 83rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Ashford's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Ashford'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 Ashford's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$167,500Among the most affordablemore affordable than 67% 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
Ashford's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,263 of 15,516
More affordable than 66% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,594 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.7×, Ashford sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,263 of 15,516 and #4,594 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
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
$61,087Ashford, AL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Ashford, 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 Ashford, AL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)15.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)52.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,438
Median Income
$61,087
Median Home Value
$167,500
Median Age
37.4
Poverty Rate
11.3%
Labor force participation
52.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
15.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
551.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
84.9
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
466.7
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
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Ashford's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,258 residents
2021
2,267 residents
2022
2,283 residents
2023
2,347 residents
2024
2,410 residents
2025
2,470 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
32
housing units authorized
Single-Family
32
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
13.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
8
8
0
$1.0M
2020
10
10
0
$1.2M
2021
11
11
0
$1.3M
2022
34
34
0
$7.7M
2023
28
28
0
$6.2M
2024
32
32
0
$7.1M
Permit volume increased 300% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
85.0%
Carpool
10.1%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.0%
Work from Home
2.4%
Other
1.5%
Based on 988 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 Ashford. 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 Ashford 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 Ashford sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Ashford 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.