Cottondale, AL population, income and ZIP codes

Cottondale CDP is a small town in Alabama, with 2,850 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #178 of 593 ranked by population — larger than 70% of them. The median age here is 45.2 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in Cottondale CDP earn a median of $44,250 a year, 43.7% below the national figure of $78,538 and 21% below the $55,687 median for the 322 Alabama cities we cover. The median is the midpoint household, not an average, so a handful of very high earners cannot drag it upward the way they distort a mean. Poverty reaches 27.3% of residents here, well above the 12.4% national rate, which is the single clearest signal in this dataset that median income here is carried by a narrow band of households.

The typical owner-occupied home in Cottondale CDP is valued at $118,600, 60.9% below the national figure and 25% below the $158,200 peer median, while median gross rent runs $904 a month, 35.7% below the national figure, or roughly $10,848 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 24.5% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 2.7×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 79.4% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

Every value on this page is published directly by the Census for this area — nothing is modelled or interpolated. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.