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Place dossier plate
SheetAL-COALING-AL · Coaling, AL 2,253 pop · income 65th 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 Coaling
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Coaling on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Clayton · lowest
32,625
Clayton · lowest
32,625 median HH income
36.2% of the leader · rank #1
Oak Grove Hei… · near
83,578
Oak Grove Hei… · near
83,578 median HH income
92.7% of the leader · rank #2
Barnum · near
83,580
Barnum · near
83,580 median HH income
92.7% of the leader · rank #3
Coaling · this city
83,587
Coaling · this city
83,587 median HH income
92.7% of the leader · rank #4
Stallion Spri… · near
83,590
Stallion Spri… · near
83,590 median HH income
92.7% of the leader · rank #5
Warsaw · near
83,594
Warsaw · near
83,594 median HH income
92.8% of the leader · rank #6
Westover · highest
90,125
Westover · highest
90,125 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 Coaling 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: 2,253.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Coaling - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Coaling places in the 65th percentile for household income and the 63rd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
65th
percentile, household income
47th
percentile, home value
1st
percentile, median rent
63rd
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: Coaling, AL
2,253 people live in Coaling, Alabama - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Coaling report a median income of $83,587 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 7.2%. Home values in Coaling run a median of $215,000, and the median resident age is 32.8 years. About 11.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 64.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 0 residential units were authorized in 2024 (No Permits). Coaling reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 1015.2 crimes per 100,000 residents, below the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than 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). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $936 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Alabama run around $245, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. 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 Coaling'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 comparison shortlist to population change to housing and income to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Coaling, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, local building permits.
No matched row is reported here for matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Coaling?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 81.7%. 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. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Coaling?
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 Riverside (2,247 residents, $67,750 income); Clayton (2,271 residents, $32,625 income); Crossville (2,296 residents, $48,464 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Crosby, MN (2,253 residents); Saugerties South, NY (2,253 residents); Biggs, CA (2,254 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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -31 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 0 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 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Coaling?
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 2.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 7.2%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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 Coaling?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1015.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 55% 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.
Total reported rate
1015.2
Violent rate
152.3
Property rate
862.9
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Above median income · poverty 7.2% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
88.8 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Alabama average
C
City profile score · Coaling, AL
57/100
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.
Household income C+
$83,587
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime C
152 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate C-
7.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
11.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Coaling profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 90/100 (A+) · 88.8 index
Household income: 63/100 (C+) · $83,587
Violent crime: 58/100 (C) · 152 /100k
Poverty rate: 51/100 (C-) · 7.2%
Bachelor's+ share: 12/100 (F) · 11.9%
Where Coaling sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Coaling'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 - Coaling highlighted among 25 peers.Read the chart values
Coaling, AL (this city): home $215,000, crime 1,015/100k
Crosby, MN : home $175,600, crime 212/100k
Riverside, AL : home $214,100, crime 1,273/100k
Clayton, AL : home $82,100, crime 1,320/100k
Elberta, AL : home $215,600, crime 3,497/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Coaling compare to other US cities?
Coaling measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income65% higher than other cities
Home value47% pricier than other cities
Median rent1% pricier than other cities
Safety63% 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: Coaling ranks #59 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 Coaling 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 Coaling near the bottom of Alabama's cities
Among the 556 Alabama cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Coaling ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Coaling only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#67 of 530
87th percentile in Alabama
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 556
0th percentile in Alabama
Median Home Value
#90 of 517
83rd percentile in Alabama
Poverty Rate
#391 of 556
29th percentile in Alabama
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#362 of 556
35th 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
65th percentile nationally for median household income · 63rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Coaling's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Coaling'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 Coaling's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$215,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 53% 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
Coaling's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,375 of 15,516
More affordable than 72% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,914 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.6×, Coaling sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,375 of 15,516 and #3,914 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
$83,587Coaling, AL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Coaling, 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 Coaling, AL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)11.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)64.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,253
Median Income
$83,587
Median Home Value
$215,000
Median Age
32.8
Poverty Rate
7.2%
Labor force participation
64.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
11.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1015.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
152.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
862.9
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.
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Coaling's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,034 residents
2021
2,015 residents
2022
1,999 residents
2023
1,990 residents
2024
1,999 residents
2025
2,003 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
Total Permits (2024)
0
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
0
0
0
-
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
81.7%
Carpool
12.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.5%
Work from Home
5.9%
Based on 1,093 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 Coaling. 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 Coaling 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 Coaling sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Coaling 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, 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.