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Place dossier plate
SheetAL-WEST-BLOCTON-AL · West Blocton, AL 1,320 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 West Blocton
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest West Blocton on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Bear Creek · lowest
36,250
Bear Creek · lowest
36,250 median HH income
20.9% of the leader · rank #1
Aubrey · near
37,500
Aubrey · near
37,500 median HH income
21.7% of the leader · rank #2
Grady · near
37,500
Grady · near
37,500 median HH income
21.7% of the leader · rank #3
Warwick · near
37,500
Warwick · near
37,500 median HH income
21.7% of the leader · rank #4
West Blocton · this city
37,537
West Blocton · this city
37,537 median HH income
21.7% of the leader · rank #5
Milan · near
37,551
Milan · near
37,551 median HH income
21.7% of the leader · rank #6
Indian Hills · highest
173,125
Indian Hills · highest
173,125 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 West Blocton 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: 1,320.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
West Blocton - the verdict
Nationally, West Blocton sits in the 6th percentile for household income and the 23rd percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
6th
percentile, household income
12th
percentile, home value
1st
percentile, median rent
23rd
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: West Blocton, AL
Alabama's West Blocton is a small town, with 1,320 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $37,537 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 17.0%. Home values in West Blocton run a median of $107,400, and the median resident age is 32.7 years. About 10.8% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 41.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 2455.5 crimes per 100,000 residents, near the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than 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. 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 West Blocton'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 population change to reported crime to comparison shortlist to schools and households to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For West Blocton, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, 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 West Blocton?
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 2.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 17.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Is West Blocton growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -17 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.4% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in West Blocton?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2455.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 8% higher 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 West Blocton?
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 Bear Creek (1,317 residents, $36,250 income); Susan Moore (1,323 residents, $81,875 income); Rock Creek (1,313 residents, $80,063 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Indian Hills, CO (1,320 residents); Bridgeport, NY (1,320 residents); Theresa, WI (1,320 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 West Blocton?
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 3 public schools within the city match. 10.8% 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
17.0%
Bachelor's degree+
10.8%
Matched public schools
3
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in West Blocton?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 84.3%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
Drive alone
84.3%
Work from home
1.5%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 394 workers age 16+.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 17.0% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
88.8 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Alabama average
F
City profile score · West Blocton, AL
29/100
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 F
339 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate F
17.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
10.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$37,537
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
West Blocton profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 90/100 (A+) · 88.8 index
Violent crime: 27/100 (F) · 339 /100k
Poverty rate: 19/100 (F) · 17.0%
Bachelor's+ share: 9/100 (F) · 10.8%
Household income: 3/100 (F) · $37,537
Where West Blocton sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
West Blocton'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 - West Blocton highlighted among 24 peers.Read the chart values
West Blocton, AL (this city): home $107,400, crime 2,456/100k
Bear Creek, AL : home $95,300, crime 3,296/100k
Susan Moore, AL : home $117,600, crime 498/100k
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 West Blocton compare to other US cities?
Here's how West Blocton stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income6% higher than other cities
Home value12% pricier than other cities
Median rent1% pricier than other cities
Safety23% 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: West Blocton ranks #143 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 West Blocton 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 West Blocton near the bottom of Alabama's cities
Among the 556 Alabama cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, West Blocton ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares West Blocton only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#437 of 530
18th percentile in Alabama
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 556
0th percentile in Alabama
Median Home Value
#366 of 517
29th percentile in Alabama
Poverty Rate
#164 of 556
70th percentile in Alabama
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#387 of 556
29th 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 · 23rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
West Blocton's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
West Blocton'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 West Blocton's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$107,400Among the most affordablemore affordable than 88% 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
West Blocton's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,916 of 15,516
More affordable than 62% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,101 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.9×, West Blocton sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,916 of 15,516 and #5,101 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
$37,537West Blocton, AL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context West Blocton, 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 West Blocton, AL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)10.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)17.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)41.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,320
Median Income
$37,537
Median Home Value
$107,400
Median Age
32.7
Poverty Rate
17.0%
Labor force participation
41.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
10.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2455.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
338.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2116.9
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
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
West Blocton's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,211 residents
2021
1,222 residents
2022
1,194 residents
2023
1,194 residents
2024
1,198 residents
2025
1,194 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
84.3%
Carpool
12.7%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.5%
Work from Home
1.5%
Based on 394 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 West Blocton. 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 West Blocton 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 West Blocton sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How West Blocton 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.