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-DOTHAN-AL · Dothan, AL 71,118 pop · income 27th pct · 26 tracts
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 Dothan
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Dothan on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Florence · lowest
50,396
Florence · lowest
50,396 median HH income
38.3% of the leader · rank #1
Rice Lake · near
55,040
Rice Lake · near
55,040 median HH income
41.9% of the leader · rank #2
L'Anse · near
55,042
L'Anse · near
55,042 median HH income
41.9% of the leader · rank #3
Dothan · this city
55,052
Dothan · this city
55,052 median HH income
41.9% of the leader · rank #4
Imlay City · near
55,061
Imlay City · near
55,061 median HH income
41.9% of the leader · rank #5
Bethany · near
55,063
Bethany · near
55,063 median HH income
41.9% of the leader · rank #6
Madison · highest
131,436
Madison · highest
131,436 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 Dothan 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: 71,118.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Dothan - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Dothan lands in the 27th percentile for household income and the 9th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
27th
percentile, household income
39th
percentile, home value
1st
percentile, median rent
9th
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: Dothan, AL
Dothan is a small city in Alabama, home to 71,118 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Dothan households earn a median of $55,052 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 14.5%. Home values in Dothan run a median of $186,600, and the median resident age is 40.4 years. 27.3% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 54.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 271 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Growing), up 10% from five years earlier. Dothan's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 3677.9 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, above the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures 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. 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. 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 Dothan'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 schools and households to comparison shortlist to reported crime to population change to housing and income to within-city variation to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Dothan, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, local building permits.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Dothan?
The NCES join finds 17 public schools within the city match. 27.3% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Dothan?
Within Alabama, the closest population matches are Auburn (78,738 residents, $56,123 income); Madison (58,335 residents, $131,436 income); Decatur (57,760 residents, $59,831 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Wilmington, DE (71,124 residents); St. Charles, MO (71,048 residents); Blaine, MN (71,261 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Dothan?
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 3677.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 61% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
PlainCities matches 26 Census tracts to this city.
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 Dothan growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +950 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 271 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
+1.3%
2025 estimate
72,060
2020 estimate
71,110
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in Dothan?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 14.5%, 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.
Household income
$55,052
Home value
$186,600
Value / income
3.4×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the journey to work look like in Dothan?
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 84.5%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.2%
Work from home
4.6%
Drive alone
84.5%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 30,678 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 14.5% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
88.8 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Alabama average
F
City profile score · Dothan, AL
38/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share C-
27.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$55,052
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
14.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
913 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Dothan profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 90/100 (A+) · 88.8 index
Bachelor's+ share: 53/100 (C-) · 27.3%
Household income: 27/100 (F) · $55,052
Poverty rate: 24/100 (F) · 14.5%
Violent crime: 0/100 (F) · 913 /100k
Where Dothan sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Dothan'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 - Dothan highlighted among 13 peers.Read the chart values
Dothan, AL (this city): home $186,600, crime 3,678/100k
Wilmington, DE : home $224,500, crime 4,286/100k
St. Charles, MO : home $280,800, crime 1,022/100k
Blaine, MN : home $327,500, crime 1,500/100k
Rogers, AR : home $278,000, crime 1,616/100k
Johnson City, TN : home $238,000, crime 2,705/100k
Waukesha, WI : home $286,600, crime 989/100k
Auburn, AL : home $342,400, crime 1,087/100k
Madison, AL : home $367,900, crime 1,538/100k
Decatur, AL : home $190,500, crime 2,916/100k
Hoover, AL : home $391,300, crime 1,335/100k
Florence, AL : home $174,100, crime 2,647/100k
Prattville, AL : home $208,500, crime 2,117/100k
How does Dothan compare to other US cities?
Here's how Dothan stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income27% higher than other cities
Home value39% pricier than other cities
Median rent1% pricier than other cities
Safety9% 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, Dothan ranks #190 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 Dothan 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 Dothan near the bottom of Alabama's cities
Among the 556 Alabama cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Dothan ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Dothan only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#247 of 530
53rd percentile in Alabama
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 556
0th percentile in Alabama
Median Home Value
#144 of 517
72nd percentile in Alabama
Poverty Rate
#216 of 556
61st percentile in Alabama
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#108 of 556
81st 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
27th percentile nationally for median household income · 9th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Dothan's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Dothan'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 Dothan's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$186,600Among the most affordablemore affordable than 61% 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
Dothan's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#8,529 of 15,516
More affordable than 45% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#188 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 3.4×, Dothan sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,529 of 15,516 and #188 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$55,052Dothan, AL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Dothan, 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 Dothan, AL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)27.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)14.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)54.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
71,118
Median Income
$55,052
Median Home Value
$186,600
Median Age
40.4
Poverty Rate
14.5%
Labor force participation
54.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
27.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3677.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
912.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2765.1
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
17
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Dothan's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
71,110 residents
2021
71,022 residents
2022
71,272 residents
2023
71,410 residents
2024
71,840 residents
2025
72,060 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Growing
Total Permits (2024)
271
housing units authorized
Single-Family
175
detached homes
Multifamily
96
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
246
194
52
$53.5M
2020
231
231
0
$64.0M
2021
249
249
0
$78.0M
2022
224
210
14
$66.4M
2023
227
227
0
$72.5M
2024
271
175
96
$72.1M
Permit volume increased 10% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
84.5%
Carpool
8.3%
Public Transit
0.2%
Walk
0.9%
Work from Home
4.6%
Other
1.5%
Based on 30,678 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 Dothan. 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 Dothan 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 Dothan sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Dothan 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.