Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetAL-DAUPHIN-ISLAND-AL · Dauphin Island, AL 1,944 pop · income 42nd 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 Dauphin Island
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Dauphin Island on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Slocomb · lowest
38,988
Slocomb · lowest
38,988 median HH income
22.5% of the leader · rank #1
South Clevela… · near
64,607
South Clevela… · near
64,607 median HH income
37.2% of the leader · rank #2
Calcium · near
64,613
Calcium · near
64,613 median HH income
37.2% of the leader · rank #3
Dauphin Island · this city
64,615
Dauphin Island · this city
64,615 median HH income
37.2% of the leader · rank #4
Northwood · near
64,615
Northwood · near
64,615 median HH income
37.2% of the leader · rank #5
Langeloth · near
64,615
Langeloth · near
64,615 median HH income
37.2% of the leader · rank #6
Shinnecock Hi… · highest
173,523
Shinnecock Hi… · highest
173,523 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 Dauphin Island 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: 1,944.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Dauphin Island - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Dauphin Island lands in the 42nd percentile for household income and the 46th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
42nd
percentile, household income
76th
percentile, home value
1st
percentile, median rent
46th
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: Dauphin Island, AL
Dauphin Island is a small town in Alabama, home to 1,944 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Dauphin Island households earn a median of $64,615 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 1.5%. Home values in Dauphin Island run a median of $387,400, and the median resident age is 60.9 years. Educational attainment runs 40.1% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 40.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 36 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 40% from five years earlier. Dauphin Island reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1501.0 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Dauphin Island's yearly average temperature at 69.2°F with 61.1 inches of precipitation per year.
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. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $936 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Alabama's average monthly utility costs around $245 (state average). The average commute for Dauphin Island workers runs 28.5 minutes, with 72.2% driving alone and 12.3% 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 Dauphin Island'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 reported crime to schools and households to housing and income to population change to climate and hazard context to work and mobility to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Dauphin Island, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, annual population history, local building permits, 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.
Question 1
What can the FBI record say about safety in Dauphin Island?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1501.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 34% 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.
What does the education layer cover for Dauphin Island?
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 40.1% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Dauphin Island?
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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 6.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 1.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Dauphin Island?
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 Stevenson (1,947 residents, $48,214 income); Grove Hill (1,940 residents, $49,223 income); Bayou La Batre (1,977 residents, $40,667 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Shinnecock Hills, NY (1,944 residents); Shippensburg University, PA (1,944 residents); Berry Hill, TN (1,944 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.
Population change
Is Dauphin Island growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +145 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +8.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 36 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.
2020 estimate
1,784
2025 estimate
1,929
Period change
+8.1%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What physical conditions frame life in Dauphin Island?
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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 69.2°F, with 61.1 inches of precipitation. 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.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
61.5
Annual precipitation
61.1 in
Mean temperature
69.2°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
What does the journey to work look like in Dauphin Island?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 72.2%. The reported mean trip to work is 28.5 minutes.
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.
Drive alone
72.2%
Work from home
12.3%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 709 workers age 16+.
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.
Poverty rate A
1.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share B+
40.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime B
104 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income D
$64,615
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Dauphin Island profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 90/100 (A+) · 88.8 index
Poverty rate: 89/100 (A) · 1.5%
Bachelor's+ share: 75/100 (B+) · 40.1%
Violent crime: 70/100 (B) · 104 /100k
Household income: 41/100 (D) · $64,615
Where Dauphin Island sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Dauphin Island'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 - Dauphin Island highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Dauphin Island, AL (this city): home $387,400, crime 1,501/100k
Berry Hill, TN : home $513,700, crime 7,208/100k
Oxford, GA : home $190,600, crime 437/100k
Stevenson, AL : home $150,200, crime 1,565/100k
Grove Hill, AL : home $151,400, crime 1,338/100k
Bayou La Batre, AL : home $87,500, crime 7,283/100k
Sylvania, AL : home $129,400, crime 993/100k
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 Dauphin Island compare to other US cities?
Where Dauphin Island sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income42% higher than other cities
Home value76% pricier than other cities
Median rent1% pricier than other cities
Safety46% 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, Dauphin Island ranks #87 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 Dauphin Island 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 Dauphin Island near the bottom of Alabama's cities
Among the 556 Alabama cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Dauphin Island ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Dauphin Island only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#165 of 530
69th percentile in Alabama
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 556
0th percentile in Alabama
Median Home Value
#16 of 517
97th percentile in Alabama
Poverty Rate
#498 of 556
10th percentile in Alabama
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#39 of 556
93rd 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
42nd percentile nationally for median household income · 46th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Dauphin Island's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Dauphin Island'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 Dauphin Island's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$387,40024th percentilemore affordable than 24% 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
Dauphin Island's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,093 of 15,516
More affordable than 9% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#10,458 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 6.0×, Dauphin Island sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,093 of 15,516 and #10,458 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
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
$64,615Dauphin Island, AL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Dauphin Island, 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 Dauphin Island, AL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)40.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)1.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)40.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,944
Median Income
$64,615
Median Home Value
$387,400
Median Age
60.9
Poverty Rate
1.5%
Labor force participation
40.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
40.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1501.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
103.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1397.5
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
69.2°F
Annual Precipitation
61.1"
Annual Snowfall
0.0"
Schools
Total Schools
1
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Dauphin Island's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,784 residents
2021
1,814 residents
2022
1,838 residents
2023
1,890 residents
2024
1,921 residents
2025
1,929 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
36
housing units authorized
Single-Family
36
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
18.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
60
57
3
$12.1M
2020
52
52
0
$11.3M
2021
56
56
0
$15.1M
2022
72
60
12
$21.4M
2023
49
41
8
$17.3M
2024
36
36
0
$17.1M
Permit volume decreased 40% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
28.5 minutes
Drive Alone
72.2%
Carpool
10.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.4%
Work from Home
12.3%
Other
3.1%
Based on 709 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 Dauphin Island. 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 Dauphin Island 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 Dauphin Island sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Dauphin Island 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.