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Place dossier plate
SheetAL-DORA-AL · Dora, AL 2,617 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 Dora
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Dora on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Richwood · lowest
33,614
Richwood · lowest
33,614 median HH income
24.3% of the leader · rank #1
Graysville · near
61,250
Graysville · near
61,250 median HH income
44.3% of the leader · rank #2
Falcon Heights · near
61,275
Falcon Heights · near
61,275 median HH income
44.3% of the leader · rank #3
Dora · this city
61,276
Dora · this city
61,276 median HH income
44.3% of the leader · rank #4
Commerce · near
61,286
Commerce · near
61,286 median HH income
44.3% of the leader · rank #5
Naples · near
61,290
Naples · near
61,290 median HH income
44.3% of the leader · rank #6
Indian Springs · highest
138,250
Indian Springs · highest
138,250 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 Dora 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: 2,617.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Dora - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Dora places in the 37th percentile for household income and the 21st percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
37th
percentile, household income
27th
percentile, home value
1st
percentile, median rent
21st
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: Dora, AL
2,617 people live in Dora, Alabama - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Dora brings in $61,276 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 9.4%. Dora's housing stock carries a median value of $150,100, and the median resident age is 42.3 years. 11.8% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 48.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 2 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Stable), up 0% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 2584.7 incidents per 100,000 residents, near the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Alabama run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Alabama scores 88.8 (Well Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. 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. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 61.5 out of 100 (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Dora'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 comparison shortlist to work and mobility to reported crime to schools and households to population change to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Dora, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, 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.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Dora?
Within Alabama, the closest population matches are Deatsville (2,618 residents, $112,176 income); Stapleton (2,606 residents, $127,535 income); Thorsby (2,601 residents, $77,500 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Devola, OH (2,617 residents); McAdoo, PA (2,617 residents); Richwood, WV (2,617 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.
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 74.4%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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 2584.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 13% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 11.8% 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.
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 Dora 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 -41 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 2 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
-1.8%
2025 estimate
2,223
2020 estimate
2,264
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in Dora?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 9.4%, 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. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
Household income
$61,276
Home value
$150,100
Value / income
2.4×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Below median income · poverty 9.4% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
88.8 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Alabama average
D
City profile score · Dora, AL
46/100
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 D
223 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate D
9.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$61,276
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
11.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Dora profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 90/100 (A+) · 88.8 index
Violent crime: 44/100 (D) · 223 /100k
Poverty rate: 42/100 (D) · 9.4%
Household income: 36/100 (F) · $61,276
Bachelor's+ share: 11/100 (F) · 11.8%
Where Dora sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Dora'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 - Dora highlighted among 25 peers.Read the chart values
Dora, AL (this city): home $150,100, crime 2,585/100k
Derry, PA : home $122,200, crime 389/100k
Floydada, TX : home $83,400, crime 1,618/100k
Thorsby, AL : home $186,000, crime 736/100k
Lineville, AL : home $146,300, crime 402/100k
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 Dora compare to other US cities?
Dora measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income37% higher than other cities
Home value27% pricier than other cities
Median rent1% pricier than other cities
Safety21% 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, Dora ranks #145 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 Dora 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 Dora near the bottom of Alabama's cities
Among the 556 Alabama cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Dora ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Dora only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#187 of 530
65th percentile in Alabama
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 556
0th percentile in Alabama
Median Home Value
#237 of 517
54th percentile in Alabama
Poverty Rate
#332 of 556
40th percentile in Alabama
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#365 of 556
34th 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 · 21st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Dora's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Dora'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 Dora's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$150,100Among the most affordablemore affordable than 73% 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
Dora's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#3,744 of 15,516
More affordable than 76% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,392 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.4×, Dora sits in the affordable band:
national rank #3,744 of 15,516 and #3,392 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
$61,276Dora, AL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Dora, 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 Dora, AL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)11.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)9.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)48.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,617
Median Income
$61,276
Median Home Value
$150,100
Median Age
42.3
Poverty Rate
9.4%
Labor force participation
48.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
11.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2584.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
222.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2361.9
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.
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
Dora's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,264 residents
2021
2,246 residents
2022
2,229 residents
2023
2,227 residents
2024
2,227 residents
2025
2,223 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Stable
Total Permits (2024)
2
housing units authorized
Single-Family
2
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.8
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
5
5
0
$0.6M
2021
1
1
0
$0.1M
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
2
2
0
$0.4M
Permit volume increased 0% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
74.4%
Carpool
17.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
3.6%
Other
4.6%
Based on 984 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 Dora. 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 Dora 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 Dora sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Dora 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.