Gulf Shores, AL population, income and ZIP codes

Gulf Shores city is a mid-size town in Alabama, with 15,785 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #45 of 593 ranked by population — larger than 92% of them. The median age here is 50.4 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.

Households in Gulf Shores city earn a median of $73,873 a year, 5.9% below the national figure of $78,538 and 33% above the $55,687 median for the 322 Alabama cities we cover. Household income here is measured before tax and pooled across everyone at the address, which is why it reads higher than typical individual earnings in the same area. Poverty reaches 11.4% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Gulf Shores city is valued at $367,000, 21% above the national figure and 132% above the $158,200 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,363 a month, 3.1% below the national figure, or roughly $16,356 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 22.1% 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 5×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 66.8% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

A median age of 50.4 puts Gulf Shores city well into retirement-weighted territory, which pulls median household income down even where household wealth is high, because retirement draws are counted differently from wages.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. 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.