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Place dossier plate
SheetAL-MADISON-AL · Madison, AL 58,335 pop · income 91st 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 Madison
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Madison on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Springfield · lowest
45,883
Springfield · lowest
45,883 median HH income
25.9% of the leader · rank #1
Savannah · near
131,397
Savannah · near
131,397 median HH income
74.3% of the leader · rank #2
Wood-Ridge · near
131,412
Wood-Ridge · near
131,412 median HH income
74.3% of the leader · rank #3
Madison · this city
131,436
Madison · this city
131,436 median HH income
74.3% of the leader · rank #4
Thornport · near
131,458
Thornport · near
131,458 median HH income
74.3% of the leader · rank #5
Cumings · near
131,459
Cumings · near
131,459 median HH income
74.3% of the leader · rank #6
Hoboken · highest
176,943
Hoboken · highest
176,943 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 Madison 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: 58,335.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Madison - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Madison places in the 91st percentile for household income and the 45th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
91st
percentile, household income
74th
percentile, home value
1st
percentile, median rent
45th
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: Madison, AL
Madison is a small city in Alabama, home to 58,335 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Madison report a median income of $131,436 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 2.4%. Home values in Madison run a median of $367,900, and the median resident age is 37.9 years. Educational attainment runs 65.9% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 65.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 1,559 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 322% from five years earlier. Madison reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 1538.2 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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $936 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $245 across Alabama, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. The average commute for Madison workers runs 16.8 minutes, with 75.0% driving alone and 18.8% working from home. 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 Madison'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 population change to work and mobility to housing and income to reported crime to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Madison, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, 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.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Madison?
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 Decatur (57,760 residents, $59,831 income); Dothan (71,118 residents, $55,052 income); Florence (41,231 residents, $50,396 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Hoboken, NJ (58,340 residents); Carson, NV (58,364 residents); St. Clair Shores, MI (58,287 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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +10,732 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +18.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1,559 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Madison?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 75.0%. The reported mean trip to work is 16.8 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. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
How far does income reach against housing in Madison?
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 2.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 2.4%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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 Madison?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1538.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 33% 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.
Total reported rate
1538.2
Violent rate
211.0
Property rate
1327.2
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
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 12 public schools within the city match. 65.9% 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
2.4%
Bachelor's degree+
65.9%
Matched public schools
12
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
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.
Bachelor's+ share A+
65.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income A+
$131,436
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
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.
Poverty rate A-
2.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime D
211 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Madison profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 95/100 (A+) · 65.9%
Household income: 91/100 (A+) · $131,436
Cost of living: 90/100 (A+) · 88.8 index
Poverty rate: 83/100 (A-) · 2.4%
Violent crime: 46/100 (D) · 211 /100k
Where Madison sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Madison'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 - Madison highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Madison, AL (this city): home $367,900, crime 1,538/100k
Hoboken, NJ : home $872,100, crime 1,972/100k
St. Clair Shores, MI : home $196,400, crime 1,251/100k
Springfield, OH : home $107,600, crime 5,887/100k
St. Peters, MO : home $252,800, crime 1,265/100k
Decatur, AL : home $190,500, crime 2,916/100k
Dothan, AL : home $186,600, crime 3,678/100k
Florence, AL : home $174,100, crime 2,647/100k
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
How does Madison compare to other US cities?
Madison measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income91% higher than other cities
Home value74% pricier than other cities
Median rent1% pricier than other cities
Safety45% 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, Madison ranks #91 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 Madison 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 Madison near the bottom of Alabama's cities
Among the 556 Alabama cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Madison ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Madison only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#10 of 530
98th percentile in Alabama
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 556
0th percentile in Alabama
Median Home Value
#18 of 517
97th percentile in Alabama
Poverty Rate
#487 of 556
12th percentile in Alabama
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#6 of 556
99th 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
91st percentile nationally for median household income · 45th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Madison's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Madison'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 Madison's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$367,90026th percentilemore affordable than 26% 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
Madison's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,591 of 15,516
More affordable than 64% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#81 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 2.8×, Madison sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,591 of 15,516 and #81 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$131,436Madison, AL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Madison, 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 Madison, AL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)65.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)2.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)65.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
58,335
Median Income
$131,436
Median Home Value
$367,900
Median Age
37.9
Poverty Rate
2.4%
Labor force participation
65.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
65.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1538.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
211.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1327.2
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
12
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Madison's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
57,236 residents
2021
58,248 residents
2022
59,730 residents
2023
60,813 residents
2024
63,811 residents
2025
67,968 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
1,559
housing units authorized
Single-Family
567
detached homes
Multifamily
992
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
26.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
369
369
0
$123.7M
2020
438
438
0
$141.3M
2021
801
345
456
$187.7M
2022
293
293
0
$112.0M
2023
1,198
363
835
$194.2M
2024
1,559
567
992
$284.3M
Permit volume increased 322% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
16.8 minutes
Drive Alone
75.0%
Carpool
4.3%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.2%
Work from Home
18.8%
Other
1.7%
Based on 28,187 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 Madison. 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 Madison 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 Madison sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Madison 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.