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Place dossier plate
SheetAL-GOODWATER-AL · Goodwater, AL 1,375 pop · income 6th 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 Goodwater
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Goodwater on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Clio · lowest
29,781
Clio · lowest
29,781 median HH income
18.0% of the leader · rank #1
Rochester · near
36,932
Rochester · near
36,932 median HH income
22.3% of the leader · rank #2
Dillard · near
36,936
Dillard · near
36,936 median HH income
22.3% of the leader · rank #3
Goodwater · this city
36,938
Goodwater · this city
36,938 median HH income
22.3% of the leader · rank #4
Cement · near
36,941
Cement · near
36,941 median HH income
22.3% of the leader · rank #5
Washington · near
36,944
Washington · near
36,944 median HH income
22.3% of the leader · rank #6
Shoal Creek · highest
165,625
Shoal Creek · highest
165,625 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 Goodwater 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: 1,375.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Goodwater - the verdict
Nationally, Goodwater sits in the 6th percentile for household income and the 53rd percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
6th
percentile, household income
4th
percentile, home value
1st
percentile, median rent
53rd
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: Goodwater, AL
Alabama's Goodwater is a small town, with 1,375 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Goodwater brings in $36,938 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 31.4%. Goodwater's housing stock carries a median value of $81,900, and the median resident age is 50.2 years. 5.0% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 36.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 0 residential building permits were authorized in Goodwater (No Permits), per Census BPS data. Goodwater reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 1285.1 in FBI UCR data, below 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. 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). 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 Goodwater'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 population change to comparison shortlist to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Goodwater, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, local building permits.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Goodwater?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 31.4%, 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Goodwater?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 92.2%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Is Goodwater 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 -39 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -3.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 0 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Goodwater?
Within Alabama, the closest population matches are Blue Ridge (1,375 residents, $124,875 income); Shoal Creek (1,371 residents, $165,625 income); Cleveland (1,366 residents, $69,087 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Mansfield, MO (1,375 residents); Joanna, SC (1,375 residents); Westhaven-Moonstone, CA (1,374 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.
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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Goodwater?
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 1285.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 44% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1124.5
Violent rate
160.6
Total reported rate
1285.1
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 31.4% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
88.8 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Alabama average
F
City profile score · Goodwater, AL
30/100
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 C
161 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$36,938
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
31.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
5.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Goodwater profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 90/100 (A+) · 88.8 index
Violent crime: 56/100 (C) · 161 /100k
Household income: 3/100 (F) · $36,938
Poverty rate: 0/100 (F) · 31.4%
Bachelor's+ share: 0/100 (F) · 5.0%
Where Goodwater sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Goodwater'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 - Goodwater highlighted among 23 peers.Read the chart values
Goodwater, AL (this city): home $81,900, crime 1,285/100k
Mansfield, MO : home $92,000, crime 913/100k
Geraldine, AL : home $199,400, crime 1,751/100k
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 Goodwater compare to other US cities?
Where Goodwater sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income6% higher than other cities
Home value4% pricier than other cities
Median rent1% pricier than other cities
Safety53% 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, Goodwater ranks #72 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 Goodwater 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 Goodwater near the bottom of Alabama's cities
Among the 556 Alabama cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Goodwater ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Goodwater only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#445 of 530
16th percentile in Alabama
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 556
0th percentile in Alabama
Median Home Value
#455 of 517
12th percentile in Alabama
Poverty Rate
#36 of 556
94th percentile in Alabama
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#517 of 556
6th 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
6th percentile nationally for median household income · 53rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Goodwater's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Goodwater'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 Goodwater's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$81,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 96% 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
Goodwater's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#2,544 of 15,516
More affordable than 84% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,380 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.2×, Goodwater sits in the affordable band:
national rank #2,544 of 15,516 and #2,380 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
$36,938Goodwater, AL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Goodwater, 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 Goodwater, AL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)5.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)31.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)36.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,375
Median Income
$36,938
Median Home Value
$81,900
Median Age
50.2
Poverty Rate
31.4%
Labor force participation
36.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
5.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1285.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
160.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1124.5
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.
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Goodwater's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,295 residents
2021
1,301 residents
2022
1,266 residents
2023
1,270 residents
2024
1,268 residents
2025
1,256 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
Total Permits (2024)
0
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
0
0
0
-
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
92.2%
Carpool
1.1%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
4.7%
Work from Home
0.0%
Other
2.0%
Based on 360 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 Goodwater. 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 Goodwater 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 Goodwater sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Goodwater 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, 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.