Article Table Of Contents
Sweet home Alabama, I'm coming home to you.with bags full of cash. That is, if I live in one of the ten richest places in the Heart of Dixie. If you already live in one of the wealthiest cities in Alabama, then kudos on your success. But if you're looking to break into the big league in this southern gem, look no further than our list of top ten richest places in Alabama. So how did we come to a final tally on the state's havens of wealth? We pored over the Census data from the American Community Survey for 104 Alabama cities with 5,000. After cutting the numbers down to the more populous locales, we then looked at various statistics like unemployment, poverty rates, and median income and assigned weights and values for each of these factors. Unsurprisingly, there was a good amount of overlap between Alabama's richest cities and its best and safest cities, especially in the upper echelon. If you want to live in a spot that ticks all the boxes, then you'll want to check out the Birmingham 'burbs of Mountain Brook or Vestavia Hills. You'll need a private jet to get to the Crimson Tide home game if you're coming from Spanish Fort, but you may just be able to afford it if you're living there. The great news about Alabama's hotspots of wealth is that 8/10 of these cities have a median household income under $100,000/year, so living in the rarefied air of the 1% might be a much more achievable goal than it is in many other states. So want to know where the richest of the rich reside in Alabama? Grab some grits and gravy with a side of caviar and champagne and read on.
At the end of the day, here's the set of the 10 richest places in Alabama for 2020:
- Mountain Brook (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Vestavia Hills (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Pike Road (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Helena (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Chelsea (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Trussville (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Spanish Fort (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Southside (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Calera (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Hoover (Photos | Homes For Sale)
So how exactly did we determine which places in Alabama have the most going on monetarily? In order to narrow down the richest cities in Alabama, we looked at a number of factors: poverty rate, median household income, and unemployment rate. The cities also had to have a population of at least 5,000.
That left us with 104 cities to score. What's the wealthiest city in Alabama? According to the data, Mountain Brook is the winner of this title for 2020.
So if you care about living in a place with low poverty, great job opportunities, and rich residents, look no further than the list below. The Heart of Dixie is calling.
Rich people not your cup of tea? Feel free to check out some more reading about Alabama:
The 10 Richest Cities In Alabama For 2020
/10
Population: 20,466
Rank Last Year: 1 (No Change)
Median Income: $143,221
Unemployment Rate: 1.9%
Poverty Rate: 3.7%
More on Mountain Brook: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Mountain Brook is a town in southeastern Jefferson County, Alabama, United States and an upper-middle-class suburb of Birmingham. Its estimated 2015 population is 20,691. It is one of the state's most affluent places.
/10
Population: 34,163
Rank Last Year: 2 (No Change)
Median Income: $105,218
Unemployment Rate: 2.2%
Poverty Rate: 3.9%
More on Vestavia Hills: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Vestavia Hills is a city in Jefferson and Shelby counties in the State of Alabama. It is a suburb of the city of Birmingham. As of the 2010 census, its population was 34,033, up from 24,476 in 2000. It moved up from the fifth largest city in Jefferson County in 2000 to the third largest in 2010, behind Birmingham and Hoover.
/10
Population: 8,884
Rank Last Year: 5 (Up 2)
Median Income: $105,203
Unemployment Rate: 2.2%
Poverty Rate: 3.9%
More on Pike Road: Real Estate | Data | Photos
/10
Population: 17,861
Rank Last Year: 3 (Down 1)
Median Income: $86,906
Unemployment Rate: 2.6%
Poverty Rate: 4.4%
More on Helena: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Helena is a city in Jefferson and Shelby Counties in the state of Alabama. Helena is considered a suburb of Birmingham and part of the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 census, the population was 16,793. Helena is highly regarded as a place to live and raise children; Business Week named Helena the 13th "Best Place to Raise Your Kids" in 2007. It has the eighth-lowest crime rate per population in the U.S., and the city was ranked in Money magazine's 2007 list of "Best Places to Live: Top 100" in the U.S., placing at number 91. The Alabama League of Municipalities awarded Helena the 2008 Municipal Achievement Award.
/10
Population: 12,643
Rank Last Year: 7 (Up 2)
Median Income: $95,060
Unemployment Rate: 3.8%
Poverty Rate: 4.4%
More on Chelsea: Real Estate | Data | Photos
/10
Population: 21,721
Rank Last Year: 6 (No Change)
Median Income: $88,371
Unemployment Rate: 3.4%
Poverty Rate: 5.2%
More on Trussville: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Trussville is a city in Jefferson and St. Clair counties in the State of Alabama. It is a suburb of Birmingham and part of the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its estimated 2015 population was 21,023.
/10
Population: 8,324
Rank Last Year: 8 (Up 1)
Median Income: $77,075
Unemployment Rate: 2.6%
Poverty Rate: 5.7%
More on Spanish Fort: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Spanish Fort is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States, located on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. The 2010 census lists the population of the city as 6,798. It is a suburb of Mobile and is part of the Daphne-Fairhope-Foley micropolitan area.
/10
Population: 8,788
Rank Last Year: 4 (Down 4)
Median Income: $71,224
Unemployment Rate: 1.7%
Poverty Rate: 6.9%
More on Southside: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Southside is a city in Etowah and Calhoun counties in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is included in the Gadsden Metropolitan Statistical Area. It incorporated in 1957. The population was 8,412 at the time of the 2010 United States Census. Located 8 to 12 miles south of downtown Gadsden, Southside is one of the fastest growing cities in northeast Alabama.
/10
Population: 13,557
Rank Last Year: 9 (No Change)
Median Income: $64,325
Unemployment Rate: 2.0%
Poverty Rate: 5.2%
More on Calera: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Calera is a city in Shelby and Chilton counties in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is the location of the Shelby County Airport. Calera's population was 3,158 at the 2000 census.
/10
Population: 84,480
Rank Last Year: 11 (Up 1)
Median Income: $84,042
Unemployment Rate: 3.5%
Poverty Rate: 6.7%
More on Hoover: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Hoover is a city in Jefferson and Shelby counties in north central Alabama, United States. The largest suburb around Birmingham, the population of the city was 84,848 as of the 2015 US Census estimate. Hoover is part of the Birmingham-Hoover, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area and is also included in the Birmingham-Hoover-Talladega, AL Combined Statistical Area. Hoover-s neighborhoods and planned communities are located along the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.
Hoover is a suburban community just outside the city of Birmingham. Crime is low, schools are consistently rated in "Best Schools in America" lists and there are many recreational options nearby, including many parks. Plenty of shopping from high-end to budget-friendly available. Residents take pride in their neighborhoods. Some neighborhoods are cookie-cutter, but homes and lawns are maintained well and there is no littering or trash in public spaces. It's a small and safe place to live!
Oak Mountain is a favorite. You can hike, swim, fish, camp or go to a concert at the outdoor theater venue. Hoover is in a great location, so you have easy access to museums, botanical gardens, historic movie theaters, shopping, and the airport. Hoover has grown rapidly and the roadways haven't kept up, so traffic is an inevitable frustration. Popular stores and restaurants seem to be on side of town and creates a lot of congestion. There is a lot of open space in the city, so building places in other parts of town would help.
How We Determined The Richest Places In Alabama For 2020
The first thing that comes to most people's minds when they think about determining the richest places is to simply identify personal incomes. After all, rich people have really high salaries.
However, we don't believe that one statistic wholly encompasses what it means to be one of the "richest places". So we looked at this set of criteria from the newly released 2014-2018 American Community Survey:
- Poverty Level
- Median Household Income
- Unemployment Rate
Median household income is the most digestible way to understand how rich a place really is. The unemployment rate tries to capture the prospects for more people to become rich. If more people are employed, the richer the future looks.
After we collected the data for all 104 places with more than 5,000 people in Alabama, we ranked each place from 1 to 104 for each of the criteria, with 1 being the richest.
We then averaged all the rankings for a place into a "Rich Score" with the place having the lowest overall Rich Score, Mountain Brook, crowned the "Richest City In Alabama For 2020". You can download the data here.
You can learn more about the top ten below or skip to the end to see the rankings for all 104 places.
There You Have It - The Wealthiest Places In Alabama For 2020
Like we said earlier, when we set out to identify the richest places in Alabama, we weren't sure what we'd encounter, but it ended up being some of the best places to live in Alabama.
When you look at the data, the cities and places mentioned above meet the criteria for being at the very top of the income ladder for everyone that lives there.
If you're curious enough, here are the poorest cities in Alabama, according to data:
Poorest: Selma
2nd Poorest: Atmore
3rd Poorest: Prichard
For more Alabama reading, check out:
Detailed List Of The Richest Cities In Alabama
| Rank | City | RichScore |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mountain Brook | 1.33 |
| 2 | Vestavia Hills | 3.33 |
| 3 | Pike Road | 3.67 |
| 4 | Helena | 6.67 |
| 5 | Chelsea | 9.33 |
| 6 | Trussville | 9.33 |
| 7 | Spanish Fort | 10.0 |
| 8 | Southside | 10.33 |
| 9 | Calera | 11.0 |
| 10 | Hoover | 12.67 |
| 11 | Pelham | 13.67 |
| 12 | Madison | 15.67 |
| 13 | Homewood | 16.0 |
| 14 | Clay | 16.67 |
| 15 | Glencoe | 18.0 |
| 16 | Hartselle | 18.0 |
| 17 | Fairhope | 18.33 |
| 18 | Orange Beach | 20.0 |
| 19 | Alabaster | 20.33 |
| 20 | Moody | 21.33 |
| 21 | Fultondale | 25.67 |
| 22 | Daphne | 26.33 |
| 23 | Pleasant Grove | 26.67 |
| 24 | Millbrook | 27.0 |
| 25 | Gardendale | 27.33 |
| 26 | Gulf Shores | 30.33 |
| 27 | Leeds | 30.33 |
| 28 | Lincoln | 30.67 |
| 29 | Muscle Shoals | 31.67 |
| 30 | Oneonta | 33.33 |
| 31 | Satsuma | 35.0 |
| 32 | Northport | 35.67 |
| 33 | Pinson | 36.0 |
| 34 | Prattville | 36.67 |
| 35 | Enterprise | 38.33 |
| 36 | Saraland | 39.67 |
| 37 | Oxford | 41.0 |
| 38 | Tuscumbia | 43.33 |
| 39 | Smiths Station | 44.0 |
| 40 | Robertsdale | 45.0 |
| 41 | Irondale | 45.33 |
| 42 | Rainbow City | 45.67 |
| 43 | Foley | 46.33 |
| 44 | Cullman | 46.33 |
| 45 | Huntsville | 46.33 |
| 46 | Wetumpka | 47.0 |
| 47 | Arab | 49.67 |
| 48 | Hueytown | 50.0 |
| 49 | Scottsboro | 50.0 |
| 50 | Guntersville | 50.67 |
| 51 | Valley | 52.67 |
| 52 | Decatur | 52.67 |
| 53 | Boaz | 53.0 |
| 54 | Russellville | 54.33 |
| 55 | Opelika | 55.67 |
| 56 | Jasper | 55.67 |
| 57 | Pell City | 56.0 |
| 58 | Roanoke | 56.0 |
| 59 | Athens | 56.33 |
| 60 | Albertville | 56.67 |
| 61 | Attalla | 58.33 |
| 62 | Dothan | 58.67 |
| 63 | Auburn | 59.67 |
| 64 | Hamilton | 60.0 |
| 65 | Florence | 62.67 |
| 66 | Montgomery | 63.67 |
| 67 | Mobile | 64.33 |
| 68 | Sheffield | 65.67 |
| 69 | Clanton | 66.67 |
| 70 | Tuscaloosa | 68.33 |
| 71 | Montevallo | 69.33 |
| 72 | Fort Payne | 69.67 |
| 73 | Bay Minette | 70.0 |
| 74 | Midfield | 72.33 |
| 75 | Andalusia | 72.67 |
| 76 | Daleville | 73.33 |
| 77 | Tallassee | 74.0 |
| 78 | Rainsville | 74.0 |
| 79 | Phenix City | 75.0 |
| 80 | Lanett | 75.67 |
| 81 | Center Point | 77.67 |
| 82 | Ozark | 79.67 |
| 83 | Sylacauga | 79.67 |
| 84 | Brewton | 80.67 |
| 85 | Greenville | 81.0 |
| 86 | Chickasaw | 81.67 |
| 87 | Jacksonville | 83.33 |
| 88 | Demopolis | 84.0 |
| 89 | Opp | 84.67 |
| 90 | Fairfield | 85.0 |
| 91 | Birmingham | 87.33 |
| 92 | Gadsden | 87.67 |
| 93 | Troy | 89.0 |
| 94 | Alexander City | 89.67 |
| 95 | Monroeville | 91.0 |
| 96 | Eufaula | 91.67 |
| 97 | Anniston | 92.67 |
| 98 | Tarrant | 93.0 |
| 99 | Bessemer | 96.0 |
| 100 | Tuskegee | 98.33 |
Let me help you out sweetheart. I don’t know who you are or where you are from, nor do I particularly care, but I have to tell you that you are one of the most biased and ignorant people I have ever had the misfortune to read an article by. I suggest you stop hiding behind your “facts” and your “don’t freak out its infotainment” and visit some of these places before you shoot your mouth off. Bless your heart. Have a wonderful life.