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Place dossier plate
SheetGA-ALMA-GA · Alma, GA 3,441 pop · income 10th 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 Alma
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Alma on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Nicholls · lowest
27,297
Nicholls · lowest
27,297 median HH income
13.2% of the leader · rank #1
Farber · near
42,094
Farber · near
42,094 median HH income
20.4% of the leader · rank #2
Alma · this city
42,097
Alma · this city
42,097 median HH income
20.4% of the leader · rank #3
Sheffield · near
42,097
Sheffield · near
42,097 median HH income
20.4% of the leader · rank #4
Farina · near
42,098
Farina · near
42,098 median HH income
20.4% of the leader · rank #5
Grace · near
42,098
Grace · near
42,098 median HH income
20.4% of the leader · rank #6
Moreland Hills · highest
206,818
Moreland Hills · highest
206,818 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 Alma 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: 3,441.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Alma - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Alma lands in the 10th percentile for household income and the 4th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
10th
percentile, household income
7th
percentile, home value
51st
percentile, median rent
4th
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: Alma, GA
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 3,441 residents in Alma, a small town within Georgia. The typical household in Alma brings in $42,097 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 9.8%. Alma's housing stock carries a median value of $92,300, and the median resident age is 38.2 years. 9.3% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 40.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 0 residential building permits were authorized in Alma (No Permits), per Census BPS data. Alma's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 4988.5 in FBI UCR data, above the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Georgia run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Georgia at 96.3 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Below Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,203 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Georgia run around $225, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 39.5 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Alma'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 schools and households to housing and income to comparison shortlist to reported crime to population change to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Alma, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, annual population history, commute-mode shares, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates.
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.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Alma?
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 9.3% 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.
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.
How far does income reach against housing in Alma?
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 9.8%, 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Alma?
Within Georgia, the closest population matches are Gray (3,453 residents, $67,789 income); Pelham (3,465 residents, $38,838 income); Ringgold (3,412 residents, $45,083 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Fetters Hot Springs-Agua Caliente, CA (3,441 residents); South Berwick, ME (3,441 residents); Shannondale, WV (3,441 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.
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 4988.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 119% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Population change
Is Alma growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -26 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.8% 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
-0.8%
2025 estimate
3,400
2020 estimate
3,426
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 79.4%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
4.8%
Drive alone
79.4%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 1,066 workers age 16+.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 9.8% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
96.3 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Georgia average
F
City profile score · Alma, GA
25/100
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 C
96.3 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 D
9.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
545 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$42,097
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
9.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Alma profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 57/100 (C) · 96.3 index
Poverty rate: 40/100 (D) · 9.8%
Violent crime: 13/100 (F) · 545 /100k
Household income: 10/100 (F) · $42,097
Bachelor's+ share: 5/100 (F) · 9.3%
Where Alma sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Alma'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 - Alma highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Alma, GA (this city): home $92,300, crime 4,989/100k
South Berwick, ME : home $340,800, crime 446/100k
Westville, IL : home $98,800, crime 1,689/100k
Gray, GA : home $184,600, crime 509/100k
Pelham, GA : home $95,800, crime 3,311/100k
Ringgold, GA : home $195,100, crime 2,613/100k
Hahira, GA : home $176,500, crime 1,579/100k
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 Alma compare to other US cities?
Alma measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income10% higher than other cities
Home value7% pricier than other cities
Median rent51% pricier than other cities
Safety4% 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 Georgia, Alma ranks #153 of 166 Georgia 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 Alma against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Georgia only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Georgia-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Alma near the bottom of Georgia's cities
Among the 638 Georgia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Alma ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Alma only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#449 of 610
26th percentile in Georgia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 638
0th percentile in Georgia
Median Home Value
#475 of 577
18th percentile in Georgia
Poverty Rate
#369 of 637
41st percentile in Georgia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#496 of 638
22nd percentile in Georgia
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 Georgia only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
10th percentile nationally for median household income · 4th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Alma's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Alma'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 Alma's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$92,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 93% 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
Alma's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#2,421 of 15,516
More affordable than 84% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,273 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.2×, Alma sits in the affordable band:
national rank #2,421 of 15,516 and #2,273 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
$42,097Alma, GA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Alma, GA median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Alma, GA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)9.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)9.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)40.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
3,441
Median Income
$42,097
Median Home Value
$92,300
Median Age
38.2
Poverty Rate
9.8%
Labor force participation
40.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
9.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
4988.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
544.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
4443.8
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
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Alma's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
3,426 residents
2021
3,389 residents
2022
3,460 residents
2023
3,483 residents
2024
3,373 residents
2025
3,400 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
79.4%
Carpool
6.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
5.7%
Work from Home
4.8%
Other
3.3%
Based on 1,066 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Georgia statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $225
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Georgia at $225 (electricity about $125 , water and sewer about $45 ).
These are Georgia statewide averages, not a meter reading for Alma. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Georgia's BEA cost-of-living index is 96.3 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Alma is $1,203/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Georgia statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 39.5 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Georgia statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Alma sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Alma compares to similar-size Georgia 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.