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Place dossier plate
SheetAL-FOLEY-AL · Foley, AL 22,330 pop · income 46th 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 Foley
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Foley on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Anniston · lowest
44,806
Anniston · lowest
44,806 median HH income
23.4% of the leader · rank #1
Catlin · near
67,344
Catlin · near
67,344 median HH income
35.2% of the leader · rank #2
Colton · near
67,344
Colton · near
67,344 median HH income
35.2% of the leader · rank #3
Foley · this city
67,346
Foley · this city
67,346 median HH income
35.2% of the leader · rank #4
Vero Beach · near
67,351
Vero Beach · near
67,351 median HH income
35.2% of the leader · rank #5
Leslie · near
67,355
Leslie · near
67,355 median HH income
35.2% of the leader · rank #6
Mountain Brook · highest
191,128
Mountain Brook · highest
191,128 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 Foley 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: 22,330.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Foley - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Foley lands in the 46th percentile for household income and the 39th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
46th
percentile, household income
58th
percentile, home value
1st
percentile, median rent
39th
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: Foley, AL
Alabama's Foley is a small city, with 22,330 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $67,346 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 8.0%. Typical homes in Foley are valued around $260,100, and the median resident age is 53.3 years. About 26.3% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 47.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 1,189 residential building permits were authorized in Foley (Building Boom), up 131% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Foley reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1721.9 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects 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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $936 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Alabama's average monthly utility costs around $245 (state average). Commute times here average 22.3 minutes, with 80.6% driving alone and 9.6% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. Natural-hazard exposure scores 61.5 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Foley'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 housing and income to work and mobility to reported crime to schools and households to population change to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Foley, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, annual population history, commute-mode shares.
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.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Foley?
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 3.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 8.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 80.6%. The reported mean trip to work is 22.3 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Foley?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1721.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 24% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Foley?
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 Mountain Brook (22,160 residents, $191,128 income); Albertville (22,584 residents, $57,103 income); Oxford (22,063 residents, $70,065 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Portsmouth, NH (22,332 residents); Cudahy, CA (22,325 residents); Marina, CA (22,324 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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Foley?
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.
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 26.3% 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.
Poverty estimate
8.0%
Bachelor's degree+
26.3%
Matched public schools
5
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +9,379 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +44.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1,189 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
20,975
2025 estimate
30,354
Period change
+44.7%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Below median income · poverty 8.0% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
88.8 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Alabama average
C
City profile score · Foley, AL
56/100
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-
26.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime D
193 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate D
8.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income D
$67,346
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Foley profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 90/100 (A+) · 88.8 index
Bachelor's+ share: 52/100 (C-) · 26.3%
Violent crime: 49/100 (D) · 193 /100k
Poverty rate: 48/100 (D) · 8.0%
Household income: 45/100 (D) · $67,346
Where Foley sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Foley'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 - Foley highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Foley, AL (this city): home $260,100, crime 1,722/100k
Portsmouth, NH : home $640,600, crime 1,472/100k
Cudahy, CA : home $505,300, crime 2,089/100k
Marina, CA : home $760,800, crime 1,533/100k
Yorkville, IL : home $314,200, crime 462/100k
Mountain Brook, AL : home $891,300, crime 838/100k
Albertville, AL : home $158,900, crime 1,996/100k
Oxford, AL : home $164,700, crime 2,804/100k
Helena, AL : home $292,700, crime 507/100k
Anniston, AL : home $141,600, crime 5,211/100k
Fairhope, AL : home $406,500, crime 1,261/100k
How does Foley compare to other US cities?
Foley measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income46% higher than other cities
Home value58% pricier than other cities
Median rent1% pricier than other cities
Safety39% 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, Foley ranks #103 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 Foley 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 Foley near the bottom of Alabama's cities
Among the 556 Alabama cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Foley ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Foley only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#147 of 530
72nd percentile in Alabama
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 556
0th percentile in Alabama
Median Home Value
#46 of 517
91st percentile in Alabama
Poverty Rate
#367 of 556
33rd percentile in Alabama
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#115 of 556
79th 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
46th percentile nationally for median household income · 39th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Foley's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Foley'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 Foley's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$260,10042nd percentilemore affordable than 42% 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
Foley's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,259 of 15,516
More affordable than 34% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,848 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.9×, Foley sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,259 of 15,516 and #1,848 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
$67,346Foley, AL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Foley, 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 Foley, AL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)26.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)8.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)47.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
22,330
Median Income
$67,346
Median Home Value
$260,100
Median Age
53.3
Poverty Rate
8.0%
Labor force participation
47.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
26.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1721.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
193.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1528.9
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
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Foley's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
20,975 residents
2021
22,401 residents
2022
23,917 residents
2023
25,148 residents
2024
28,147 residents
2025
30,354 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
1,189
housing units authorized
Single-Family
976
detached homes
Multifamily
213
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
53.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
515
371
144
$75.9M
2020
751
727
24
$130.9M
2021
765
645
120
$133.5M
2022
579
579
0
$135.3M
2023
1,565
1,005
560
$298.7M
2024
1,189
976
213
$293.2M
Permit volume increased 131% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
22.3 minutes
Drive Alone
80.6%
Carpool
7.5%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.9%
Work from Home
9.6%
Other
1.4%
Based on 8,900 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 Foley. 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 Foley 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 Foley sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Foley 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.