ZIP code 35959

ZIP 35959 is a small town in Cherokee County, Alabama, with 4,431 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #307 of 656 ranked by population — larger than 53% of them. The median age here is 53.3 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 ZIP 35959 earn a median of $47,547 a year, 39.5% below the national figure of $78,538. 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 16.9% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 35959 is valued at $193,400, 36.3% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $750 a month, 46.7% below the national figure, or roughly $9,000 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 18.9% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 4.1×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 78.2% 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.

A median age of 53.3 puts ZIP 35959 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.

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.

ZIP 35959 is tabulated inside Cherokee County, Alabama, one of 5 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 656 across Alabama. Population sits in the small-town band, typically one main street plus the addresses that feed into it. County assignment on this page follows the largest share of the ZIP's land area, which matters where a delivery route crosses a county line: mail addressed to 35959 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 35959 reports a median household income of $47,547, 10% below the $52,726 county median, and 14% below the $55,313 typical AL ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $193,400, 23% above the county figure and 31% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $750 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Alabama charges 4% statewide, and local governments overlapping 35959 may add county, city or special-district levies on top. We publish the state floor for this ZIP rather than guessing a combined figure, because ZIP boundaries and taxing-district boundaries were drawn for different purposes and do not line up.

Everything above comes from the Census Bureau American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates for this ZIP Code Tabulation Area, with sales tax rates traced to the state revenue agency. Five-year estimates pool sixty months of responses, so they are stable enough to compare 35959 with its neighbours but always trail the current year, and any value the Census suppressed for sample size is shown as unpublished rather than filled in with a model.