Jasper, Alabama

Area Profile

14,442 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Jasper, in Walker County.

58out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 41% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity2143rd of 3,904 published cities54
GrowthTop 45% of 2,973 published cities53
Housing affordabilityTop 15% of 4,223 published cities97
ClimateTop 26% of 4,223 published cities76
Physical resilience3494th of 4,182 published cities22
Access3265th of 4,226 published cities80
Economic stability3748th of 4,226 published cities35
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.8% and median household income $66,238, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 13% of median household income and the median home is 3.3 times it.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by inland flooding, tornado and earthquake.

At a glance

Population
14,442
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$66,238
Bottom 49% nationally
Density
491/sq mi
29.4 sq mi of land
Median age
35.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Walker County
Alabama
Metro area
Birmingham, AL
Nearest major airport
BHM
36 mi · Birmingham-Shuttlesworth Intl
Median home value
$215,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.8% is lower than 70% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.6% over the past year, to 26,105 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$9,667$66,238Bottom 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$4,766$33,377Bottom 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate15.9%Top 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute30.6 minTop 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher28.2%Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment26,105Bottom 34%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.3%Bottom 47%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.6%Bottom 31%June 2026
Labor force27,143Bottom 33%June 2026
Labor force participation56.2%Bottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$60,770Bottom 17%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$47,770Bottom 21%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.9%Top 7%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.8%Bottom 30%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202466k56k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $66,238 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 — Birmingham, AL
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Registered Nurses17,850$78,680
Retail Salespersons15,280$31,450
Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive10,900$44,580
Stockers and Order Fillers10,890$35,660
Cashiers10,690$29,310
Fast Food and Counter Workers10,080$27,020

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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Walker County, AL, which contains this city.

There are 18.0 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
11
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
18.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Jasper High SchoolJasper City85016.0
Maddox Intermediate SchoolJasper City64318.9
Valley Junior High SchoolWalker County60218.8
Curry Elementary SchoolWalker County55018.3
T R Simmons Elementary SchoolJasper City50717.5
Memorial Park Elementary SchoolJasper City48320.1
Jasper Junior High SchoolJasper City46718.0
Curry High SchoolWalker County36417.3
Curry Middle SchoolWalker County35318.6
Walker County Center Of TechnologyWalker County0
Walker County Schools 180 ProgramWalker County0

51.9% 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 $721 takes 13% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.3 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
13.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$721
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$215,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.26Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate66.4%Bottom 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3976,162Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$142$721Bottom 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$18,331$215,700Top 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income13.1%Bottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate14.6%Top 35%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
53/ 100
Top 45% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 2 consecutive years, measured from 2020 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 14,561 in 2024.

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

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

At 2.8 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
41
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.8
Top 44% nationally
Year over year
+71%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202415k14k
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
202020222023202420256012
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−74%).

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 31°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 61.8 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station JASPER, 4.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND6.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation61.8"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall0.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low31°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing38°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

22 / 100
Physical resilience

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

TornadoHigh
Inland floodingHigh
Heat waveElevated
EarthquakeElevated
LightningModerate

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. 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.

Walker County records 9.3 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 20.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 41.7 per 100,000 residents in Walker County.

Homicide
9.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
20.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
41.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
17.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

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 Walker 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 Jasper rather than Jasper 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.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Birmingham-Shuttlesworth IntlBHM36 mi12,007 ft
Huntsville Intl-Carl T Jones FldHSV61 mi10,001 ft
Golden Triangle RgnlGTR81 mi8,003 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.

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Area Score
58
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Other cities in Birmingham, AL

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
BirminghamJefferson County198,17356vs Jasper
HooverJefferson County92,64272vs Jasper
Vestavia HillsJefferson County38,61665vs Jasper
AlabasterShelby County33,91770vs Jasper
HomewoodJefferson County27,82966vs Jasper
TrussvilleJefferson County26,67374vs Jasper
BessemerJefferson County25,40053vs Jasper
PelhamShelby County24,82770vs Jasper
Mountain BrookJefferson County22,02966vs Jasper
HelenaShelby County21,76971vs Jasper
CaleraShelby County17,71470vs Jasper
GardendaleJefferson County16,53468vs Jasper

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

Compare

Put Jasper side by side with a similar place.

Jasper vs Shady HillsJasper vs Bayou BlueJasper vs East MiltonJasper vs Bartow

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
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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.

ZIP codes in Jasper

3 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
3550414,332$66,83558
355019,927$54,72656
355039,329$63,50857