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Place dossier plate
SheetAL-VERNON-AL · Vernon, AL 1,819 pop · income 2nd pct · 4 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 Vernon
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Vernon on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Marion · lowest
27,143
Marion · lowest
27,143 median HH income
25.0% of the leader · rank #1
Patrick · near
27,153
Patrick · near
27,153 median HH income
25.0% of the leader · rank #2
Evening Shade · near
27,159
Evening Shade · near
27,159 median HH income
25.0% of the leader · rank #3
Ferriday · near
27,167
Ferriday · near
27,167 median HH income
25.0% of the leader · rank #4
Sasser · near
27,169
Sasser · near
27,169 median HH income
25.0% of the leader · rank #5
Vernon · this city
27,174
Vernon · this city
27,174 median HH income
25.0% of the leader · rank #6
Graton · highest
108,750
Graton · highest
108,750 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 Vernon 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: 1,819.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Vernon - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Vernon lands in the 2nd percentile for household income and the 27th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
2nd
percentile, household income
14th
percentile, home value
1st
percentile, median rent
27th
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: Vernon, AL
Vernon is a small town in Alabama, home to 1,819 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Vernon report a median income of $27,174 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 29.6%. Vernon's housing stock carries a median value of $112,500, and the median resident age is 44.2 years. Educational attainment runs 11.7% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 39.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 0 residential units authorized here in 2024 (No Permits), down 100% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 2246.6 in FBI UCR data, near the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Vernon's yearly average temperature at 63.5°F with 58.5 inches of precipitation per year and 0.5 inches of snowfall.
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. 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 Vernon'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 reported crime to work and mobility to schools and households to housing and income to within-city variation to climate and hazard context to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Vernon, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, annual population history, local building permits, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Vernon?
Within Alabama, the closest population matches are Vance (1,822 residents, $76,654 income); Sardis City (1,805 residents, $59,632 income); Collinsville (1,835 residents, $31,411 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Graton, CA (1,819 residents); Bridgeport, IL (1,819 residents); Roanoke, IN (1,819 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 Vernon?
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 2246.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 1% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What does the journey to work look like in Vernon?
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 86.2%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
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 Vernon?
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 11.7% 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 matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
Matched public schools
2
Bachelor's degree+
11.7%
Poverty estimate
29.6%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
How far does income reach against housing in Vernon?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 29.6%, 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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
Household income
$27,174
Home value
$112,500
Value / income
4.1×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 63.5°F, with 58.5 inches of precipitation and 0.5 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Alabama is 61.5 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
Mean temperature
63.5°F
Annual precipitation
58.5 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
61.5
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
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 -95 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -5.0% 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.
Period change
-5.0%
2025 estimate
1,823
2020 estimate
1,918
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 29.6% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
88.8 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Alabama average
F
City profile score · Vernon, AL
33/100
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 B-
110 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
11.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$27,174
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
29.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Vernon profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 90/100 (A+) · 88.8 index
Violent crime: 68/100 (B-) · 110 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 11/100 (F) · 11.7%
Household income: 0/100 (F) · $27,174
Poverty rate: 0/100 (F) · 29.6%
Where Vernon sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Vernon'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 - Vernon highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Vernon, AL (this city): home $112,500, crime 2,247/100k
Bridgeport, IL : home $57,500, crime 956/100k
Leachville, AR : home $115,800, crime 1,429/100k
Vance, AL : home $208,600, crime 1,602/100k
Sardis City, AL : home $207,300, crime 1,631/100k
Midland City, AL : home $153,400, crime 693/100k
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 Vernon compare to other US cities?
Here's how Vernon stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income2% higher than other cities
Home value14% pricier than other cities
Median rent1% pricier than other cities
Safety27% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Alabama and the picture shifts: Vernon ranks #132 of 222 Alabama cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Vernon 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 Vernon near the bottom of Alabama's cities
Among the 556 Alabama cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Vernon ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Vernon only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#511 of 530
4th percentile in Alabama
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 556
0th percentile in Alabama
Median Home Value
#348 of 517
33rd percentile in Alabama
Poverty Rate
#43 of 556
92nd percentile in Alabama
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#370 of 556
33rd 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
2nd percentile nationally for median household income · 27th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Vernon's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Vernon'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 Vernon's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$112,500Among the most affordablemore affordable than 86% 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
Vernon's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,085 of 15,516
More affordable than 29% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#8,613 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.1×, Vernon sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,085 of 15,516 and #8,613 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$27,174Vernon, AL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Vernon, 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 Vernon, AL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)11.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)29.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)39.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,819
Median Income
$27,174
Median Home Value
$112,500
Median Age
44.2
Poverty Rate
29.6%
Labor force participation
39.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
11.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2246.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
109.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2137.0
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
63.5°F
Annual Precipitation
58.5"
Annual Snowfall
0.5"
Schools
Total Schools
2
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Vernon's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,918 residents
2021
1,880 residents
2022
1,855 residents
2023
1,847 residents
2024
1,830 residents
2025
1,823 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
1
1
0
$0.1M
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
0
0
0
-
Permit volume decreased 100% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
86.2%
Carpool
10.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
3.8%
Based on 529 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 Vernon. 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 Vernon 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 Vernon sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Vernon 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, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.