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Place dossier plate
SheetAL-FLORENCE-AL · Florence, AL 41,231 pop · income 20th 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 Florence
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Florence on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Gadsden · lowest
38,699
Gadsden · lowest
38,699 median HH income
22.1% of the leader · rank #1
Blende · near
50,385
Blende · near
50,385 median HH income
28.7% of the leader · rank #2
Orient · near
50,385
Orient · near
50,385 median HH income
28.7% of the leader · rank #3
Hanley Hills · near
50,388
Hanley Hills · near
50,388 median HH income
28.7% of the leader · rank #4
Florence · this city
50,396
Florence · this city
50,396 median HH income
28.7% of the leader · rank #5
Bloomingdale · near
50,408
Bloomingdale · near
50,408 median HH income
28.8% of the leader · rank #6
Rancho Palos… · highest
175,307
Rancho Palos… · highest
175,307 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 Florence 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: 41,231.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Florence - the verdict
Nationally, Florence sits in the 20th percentile for household income and the 20th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
20th
percentile, household income
35th
percentile, home value
1st
percentile, median rent
20th
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: Florence, AL
Florence is a small city in Alabama, home to 41,231 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Florence households earn a median of $50,396 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 13.4%. Typical homes in Florence are valued around $174,100, and the median resident age is 35.1 years. About 31.1% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 53.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 131 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Rapid Growth), up 35% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 2646.5 in FBI UCR data, near 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. Monthly utility costs average around $245 across Alabama, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Workers in Florence report an average commute of 17.1 minutes, with 80.4% driving alone and 6.7% working from home. 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 Florence'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 within-city variation to schools and households 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 Florence, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Florence?
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 80.4%. The reported mean trip to work is 17.1 minutes.
Which cities make useful reference points for Florence?
Within Alabama, the closest population matches are Prattville (38,850 residents, $79,396 income); Vestavia Hills (38,704 residents, $129,171 income); Phenix City (38,477 residents, $49,715 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Hallandale Beach, FL (41,224 residents); Woburn, MA (41,205 residents); Rancho Palos Verdes, CA (41,259 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.
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.
The NCES join finds 14 public schools within the city match. 31.1% 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.
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 Florence 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 +1,996 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +4.9% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 131 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
+4.9%
2025 estimate
42,581
2020 estimate
40,585
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in Florence?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 13.4%, 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. 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
$50,396
Home value
$174,100
Value / income
3.5×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Florence?
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 2646.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 16% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
2017.4
Violent rate
629.1
Total reported rate
2646.5
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
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+
31.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
13.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$50,396
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
629 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Florence profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 90/100 (A+) · 88.8 index
Bachelor's+ share: 60/100 (C+) · 31.1%
Poverty rate: 26/100 (F) · 13.4%
Household income: 21/100 (F) · $50,396
Violent crime: 9/100 (F) · 629 /100k
Where Florence sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Florence'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 - Florence highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Florence, AL (this city): home $174,100, crime 2,647/100k
Woburn, MA : home $641,800, crime 1,142/100k
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA : home $1,541,400, crime 975/100k
Brighton, CO : home $475,100, crime 2,991/100k
Milton, GA : home $712,200, crime 543/100k
Prattville, AL : home $208,500, crime 2,117/100k
Vestavia Hills, AL : home $494,500, crime 728/100k
Phenix City, AL : home $160,000, crime 4,248/100k
Alabaster, AL : home $242,600, crime 1,610/100k
Gadsden, AL : home $101,900, crime 3,159/100k
Opelika, AL : home $213,700, crime 3,185/100k
How does Florence compare to other US cities?
Where Florence sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income20% higher than other cities
Home value35% pricier than other cities
Median rent1% pricier than other cities
Safety20% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Alabama alone, Florence ranks #150 of 222 Alabama cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Florence 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 Florence near the bottom of Alabama's cities
Among the 556 Alabama cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Florence ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Florence only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#285 of 530
46th percentile in Alabama
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 556
0th percentile in Alabama
Median Home Value
#176 of 517
66th percentile in Alabama
Poverty Rate
#238 of 556
57th percentile in Alabama
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#81 of 556
85th 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
20th percentile nationally for median household income · 20th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Florence's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Florence'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 Florence's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$174,100Among the most affordablemore affordable than 65% 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
Florence's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#8,795 of 15,516
More affordable than 43% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,448 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.5×, Florence sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,795 of 15,516 and #1,448 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$50,396Florence, AL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Florence, 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 Florence, AL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)31.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)13.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)53.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
41,231
Median Income
$50,396
Median Home Value
$174,100
Median Age
35.1
Poverty Rate
13.4%
Labor force participation
53.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
31.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2646.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
629.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2017.4
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
14
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Florence's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
40,585 residents
2021
41,068 residents
2022
41,688 residents
2023
42,425 residents
2024
42,651 residents
2025
42,581 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
131
housing units authorized
Single-Family
59
detached homes
Multifamily
72
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
97
71
26
$10.7M
2020
63
63
0
$8.3M
2021
114
86
28
$13.7M
2022
152
82
70
$14.1M
2023
94
64
30
$15.0M
2024
131
59
72
$23.6M
Permit volume increased 35% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
17.1 minutes
Drive Alone
80.4%
Carpool
9.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.2%
Work from Home
6.7%
Other
0.9%
Based on 17,913 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 Florence. 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 Florence 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 Florence sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Florence 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.