Alabama cities and towns

This directory lists every place the US Census Bureau tabulates in Alabama, ranked from the largest to the smallest by population. Incorporated cities, towns and villages appear alongside census-designated places (CDPs) — unincorporated communities that have no local government of their own but are counted separately because they have a recognised name and settled population. The suffix in each name ("city", "town", "village", "CDP") is the Census legal/statistical description, which is why you will see entries such as "Huntsville city".

The largest place in Alabama is Huntsville city with 218,814 residents, and the 593 places on this page hold 3,378,833 people between them. Median household income across the listed places runs from $2,499 to $191,128, and median home values range from $9,999 to $891,300 — a spread that shows how much local housing markets diverge inside a single state.

Every figure comes from the American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year five-year estimates, which average survey responses over sixty months. That averaging is what makes small towns measurable at all, but it also means the numbers describe the period as a whole rather than today. Blank cells are estimates the Census suppressed because the local sample was too small to publish reliably. Select any place to open its full profile with affordability ratios, poverty and homeownership rates, and links to nearby communities of similar size.

Most of what is listed for Alabama is small. 45% of the 593 places here hold fewer than a thousand residents, while 10 carry 50,000 or more and account between them for 38% of the state's 3,378,833 counted people. The ranking below is really two lists stacked together: a short one of cities and a very long one of villages. The median row holds just 1,215 residents. At that scale margins of error widen sharply, and a single large household or seasonal population can shift a median.

Alabama runs cheap on housing relative to earnings: $142,300 median home value against $52,529 of household income works out to 2.7 years of gross income, against 3.9 nationally. Incomes are lower here too, so the local comparison that matters for a move is rent. Rent stays modest against earnings — $789 a month, roughly 18% of median household income over a year.

Incomes fan out sharply inside Alabama. Strip the outliers and the top-decile place still earns 2.67× the bottom-decile one ($87,143 against $32,625); include them and Mountain Brook city tops the list at $191,128 and Memphis town anchors the bottom at $2,499. A single "Alabama average" is averaging across two different economies.

About one row in 13 is incomplete — 50 of 593 places have a suppressed estimate, almost all of them at the small end. Five-year estimates average responses over sixty months, so what is published is a stable baseline rather than a reading of this month's market.

How many places does Alabama have? 593 appear in the current federal tabulation, counting incorporated cities, towns and villages together with census-designated places — unincorporated communities with no local government of their own. 45% of them have fewer than a thousand residents, so the list is far longer than the number of towns you would recognise by name.

Which Alabama row should I compare mine against? Pick places within roughly the same population band. In a state this spread out, size drives the housing and income figures more than region does.

How current is this? Every figure comes from the American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year release published by the US Census Bureau, ACS 2019-2023 5-year estimates. It reflects the full survey window rather than a single date, and it is the most recent vintage available for places this small.