Talladega County, AL
County Profile
81,021 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Talladega 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.
Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 4.5% and the Opportunity signal places Talladega County in the bottom 5%.
202 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 6% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.
Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by inland flooding, tornado and heat wave.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 4.5% is lower than 38% of the 1,255 measured US locations.
Employment fell 3.8% over the past year, to 32,751 employed residents.
| Metric | Value | Compared with peers | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income ±$2,457 | $57,776 | Bottom 29% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$1,564 | $30,482 | Bottom 28% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Poverty rate | 17.8% | Top 25% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute | 29.2 min | Top 27% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | 16.5% | Bottom 20% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Employment | 32,751 | Bottom 42% | June 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years) | -3.2% | Bottom 14% | June 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year) | -3.8% | Bottom 5% | June 2026 |
| Labor force | 34,298 | Bottom 42% | June 2026 |
| Labor force participation | 52.6% | Bottom 22% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year) | 1.1% | Top 3% | June 2026 |
| Unemployment rate | 4.5% | Top 38% | June 2026 |
Schools
How it’s calculated →There are 18.5 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.
| School | District | Students | Per teacher | Math | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lincoln Elementary School | Talladega County | 902 | 18.4 | — | — |
| Munford Elementary School | Talladega County | 770 | 19.7 | — | — |
| Talladega High School | Talladega City | 634 | 21.1 | — | — |
| Sylacauga High School | Sylacauga City | 627 | 15.7 | — | — |
| Lincoln High School | Talladega County | 607 | 19.6 | — | — |
| Fayetteville High School | Talladega County | 580 | 20.0 | — | — |
| BB Comer Memorial Elementary School | Talladega County | 521 | 18.0 | — | — |
| Indian Valley Elementary School | Sylacauga City | 477 | 16.4 | — | — |
| Charles R Drew Middle School | Talladega County | 448 | 19.5 | — | — |
| NicholsLawson Middle School | Sylacauga City | 446 | 15.4 | — | — |
| Pinecrest Elementary School | Sylacauga City | 426 | 20.3 | — | — |
| BB Comer Memorial High School | Talladega County | 395 | 19.8 | — | — |
60.6% 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 $785 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.
A median home costs 2.6 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.
| Metric | Value | Compared with peers | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home price to income | 2.58 | Bottom 32% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate | 72.0% | Bottom 37% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±64 | 38,547 | Top 21% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median gross rent ±$29 | $785 | Bottom 31% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$10,547 | $149,200 | Bottom 30% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income | 16.3% | Bottom 41% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate | 12.7% | Bottom 43% | 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 →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 81,375 in 2024.
Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.
At 2.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.
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 33°F.
Normal annual precipitation is 52.2 inches.
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Annual precipitation | 52.2" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low | 33°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high | 90°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months | 7 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Seasonal temperature swing | 37°F | 1991-2020 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
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, tornado and heat wave.
Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, strong wind, wildfire, drought, hail, 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.
Safety
How it’s measured →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.
Talladega County records 17.3 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.
Firearm deaths of all intents run at 34.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.
Drug overdose deaths run at 14.8 per 100,000 residents in Talladega County.
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 Talladega 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 Talladega County rather than Talladega 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 36 miles away.
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Birmingham-Shuttlesworth Intl | BHM | 36 mi | 12,007 ft |
| Montgomery Rgnl (Dannelly Fld) | MGM | 75 mi | 9,020 ft |
| Huntsville Intl-Carl T Jones Fld | HSV | 94 mi | 10,001 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.
Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.
Similar places
Matched on AreaProfile signals, not geographyCompare
Put Talladega County side by side with a similar place.
Data & methodology
| Used for | Source | Source period | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle | 28-day NASR cycle |
| Physical risk | Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index | National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0) | Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current) |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals | Every ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period) |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | June 2026 | Monthly |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate | Annual (vintage released each spring) |
| Development | U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey | 12 months ending July 2026 | Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month |
| Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year | Annual (5-year estimates released each December) |
| safety | U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics Provisional county-level mortality by intent | April, 2025 to March, 2026 | Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years |
| schools | U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments | 2024-25 school year | Directory 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.