Calhoun County, AL

County Profile

116,090 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Calhoun County, AL.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

53out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 17% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity1155th of 1,255 counties29
Growth1057th of 1,226 counties29
Housing affordabilityTop 23% of 1,255 counties100
ClimateTop 10% of 1,254 counties78
Physical resilience858th of 1,255 counties47
Access927th of 1,255 counties68
Economic stability1099th of 1,255 counties34
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 4.5% and the Opportunity signal places Calhoun County in the bottom 8%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 116 units authorized over the past twelve months, 33% below the prior year.

Rent takes 18% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 2.8 times that income.

At a glance

Population
116,090
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$55,029
Bottom 23% nationally
Density
192/sq mi
605.9 sq mi of land
Median age
39.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Calhoun County
Alabama
Metro area
Anniston-Oxford, AL
Nearest major airport
BHM
55 mi · Birmingham-Shuttlesworth Intl
Median home value
$156,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.5% is lower than 38% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 2.0% over the past year, to 47,019 employed residents.

Median household income of $55,029 is below 77% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,763$55,029Bottom 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,040$30,275Bottom 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate17.9%Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute26.7 minTop 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher20.6%Bottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment47,019Top 46%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.2%Bottom 20%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.0%Bottom 18%June 2026
Labor force49,224Top 46%June 2026
Labor force participation56.1%Bottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)1.2%Top 2%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.5%Top 38%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.52.0
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.5% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202456k51k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $55,029 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Anniston-Oxford, AL
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons1,530$29,400
Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators1,450$46,070
Cashiers1,290$27,130
Fast Food and Counter Workers1,080$22,650
Stockers and Order Fillers1,060$29,810
Registered Nurses990$72,730

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

There are 16.3 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
37
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.3
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Oxford High SchoolOxford City1,24215.3
Kitty Stone Elementary SchoolJacksonville City92919.0
Oxford Elementary SchoolOxford City83712.9
Jacksonville High SchoolJacksonville City75616.1
Alexandria Elementary SchoolCalhoun County71215.5
Saks Elementary SchoolCalhoun County62516.4
Oxford Middle SchoolOxford City61914.7
Wellborn Elementary SchoolCalhoun County59817.6
Weaver Elementary SchoolCalhoun County54416.5
Piedmont Elementary SchoolPiedmont City54218.1
CE Hanna SchoolOxford City53612.8
White Plains Elementary SchoolCalhoun County53015.6

58.0% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Alabama’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $826 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.8 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
18.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$826
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$156,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.85Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate70.3%Bottom 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±6753,361Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$31$826Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$5,832$156,600Bottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.0%Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate15.6%Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
29/ 100
Ranks 1057 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 2 consecutive years, measured from 2022 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has been broadly flat since 2020, at 116,427 in 2024.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 1.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
116
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.0
Bottom 15% nationally
Year over year
−33%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024116k116k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
202220232024202514757
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+93%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 90°F and January a low of 34°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 52.1 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station ANNISTON METRO AP, 12.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation52.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low34°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing36°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

Physical risk

47 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, tornado and cold wave.

TornadoElevated
Inland floodingModerate
LandslideModerate
EarthquakeModerate
LightningModerate
Heat waveModerate
Cold waveModerate
HurricaneModerate

Low or minimal exposure: strong wind, wildfire, hail, drought, ice storm, winter weather.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Calhoun County records 5.1 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 21.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 22.3 per 100,000 residents in Calhoun County.

Homicide
5.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
21.5
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
22.3
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
27.5
per 100,000 residents

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Calhoun County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Calhoun County rather than Calhoun County itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 55 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Birmingham-Shuttlesworth IntlBHM55 mi12,007 ft
Huntsville Intl-Carl T Jones FldHSV81 mi10,001 ft
Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta IntlATL81 mi12,390 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

Customize your score

What matters to you?

Choose what you weight most heavily. Nothing is saved to an account — your preferences stay in this browser, and the Area Score never changes.

Area Score
53
Your Score

Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.