QoL Rank
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Alabama

Alabama has a quality of life score of 33/100 (F, poor) and ranks #47 of 51 states. Its strongest category is cost of living (61) and its weakest is education (23). Its top-rated larger counties are Shelby County, Madison County, Limestone County.

  • Safety: 24
  • Cost of living: 61
  • Education: 23
  • Quality of life: 24

Key figures: violent crime 360.6 per 100,000 people a year (US 345.2); median rent $1,007 a month; median home value $209,900; median household income $62,248; life expectancy 73.3 years.

Counties in Alabama, best first

  1. Shelby County 60
  2. Madison County 58
  3. Limestone County 51
  4. Cullman County 51
  5. Baldwin County 51
  6. Lee County 50
  7. Autauga County 48
  8. Marion County 48
  9. Lauderdale County 48
  10. DeKalb County 47
  11. Lawrence County 46
  12. St. Clair County 44
  13. Coffee County 44
  14. Elmore County 44
  15. Marshall County 44
  16. Franklin County 44
  17. Geneva County 43
  18. Fayette County 43
  19. Dale County 43
  20. Cleburne County 43
  21. Jackson County 43
  22. Winston County 42
  23. Colbert County 42
  24. Clay County 42
  25. Morgan County 41
  26. Blount County 41
  27. Tuscaloosa County 41
  28. Calhoun County 39
  29. Washington County 39
  30. Chilton County 39
  31. Lamar County 39
  32. Henry County 38
  33. Tallapoosa County 38
  34. Pickens County 37
  35. Etowah County 37
  36. Crenshaw County 37
  37. Covington County 36
  38. Houston County 36
  39. Cherokee County 36
  40. Jefferson County 34
  41. Pike County 34
  42. Talladega County 33
  43. Walker County 33
  44. Bibb County 33
  45. Chambers County 32
  46. Randolph County 32
  47. Montgomery County 32
  48. Mobile County 30
  49. Coosa County 29
  50. Perry County 29
  51. Escambia County 29
  52. Choctaw County 29
  53. Marengo County 29
  54. Russell County 29
  55. Barbour County 29
  56. Macon County 28
  57. Butler County 28
  58. Monroe County 26
  59. Hale County 25
  60. Clarke County 24
  61. Conecuh County 24
  62. Bullock County 22
  63. Sumter County 20
  64. Wilcox County 20
  65. Dallas County 18
  66. Greene County 18
  67. Lowndes County 16

Your priorities

Choose how much each category counts toward the overall score. The map, rankings and every place’s overall score update as you go.

About the data

Every county is compared with every other US county, and every state with the other states.

Each measure becomes a percentile from 0 to 100, where 100 is always best. For crime, deaths, disaster risk, costs and commutes, the lowest value is best. A category score averages its measures’ percentiles and is then scaled so all four categories have the same spread around 50, so each counts equally. The overall score is the average of the four. 50 is a typical place, and most land between 35 and 65. Your priorities lets you weight the categories differently.

Grades: A 65 and up, B 55–64, C 45–54, D 35–44, F under 35.

Each category lists a county’s own figures next to its state’s and the US figures. Under the state and US columns, Difference shows whether the county is higher or lower, as a share of that figure (hover for the exact gap). Rank shows where it ranks instead: “ranked 75%” means it does better than 75% of the counties in its state, or in the US. A green arrow or dot means the county does better, red means worse.

Compare puts any two places side by side, counties or states, in any state. The better value in each row is highlighted.

A county gets an overall score only if all four categories have data and at least 60% of the measures are present. Small counties often have suppressed data, and without this rule they rank at the top on just a few numbers. Top 10 lists only include counties with at least 10,000 people.

What’s measured

Limitations

Sources