36203Oxford, Alabama

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 36203.

56out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 34% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity5149th of 6,210 published ZIP areas38
Growth3743rd of 5,428 published ZIP areas38
Housing affordabilityTop 9% of 6,685 published ZIP areas100
ClimateTop 21% of 6,789 published ZIP areas78
Physical resilience4635th of 6,709 published ZIP areas40
Access5931st of 6,791 published ZIP areas71
Economic stability5196th of 6,742 published ZIP areas43
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 4.5% and the Opportunity signal places 36203 in the bottom 17%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 62 units authorized over the past twelve months, 51% below the prior year.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 15% of median household income and the median home is 2.6 times it.

At a glance

Population
18,919
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$69,485
Bottom 46% nationally
Density
480/sq mi
39.4 sq mi of land
Median age
38.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Oxford
Alabama
Metro area
Anniston-Oxford, AL
Nearest major airport
BHM
53 mi · Birmingham-Shuttlesworth Intl
Median home value
$178,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.5% is lower than 48% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

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

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$7,747$69,485Bottom 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,232$34,825Bottom 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate16.8%Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute27.0 minBottom 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher24.3%Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment47,019Bottom 46%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.2%Bottom 17%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.0%Bottom 17%June 2026
Labor force49,224Bottom 46%June 2026
Labor force participation61.8%Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$50,950Bottom 1%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$42,680Bottom 3%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)1.2%Top 2%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.5%Top 48%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202469k59k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $69,485 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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Oxford, AL, the city containing this ZIP code.

There are 14.1 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
5
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.1
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Oxford High SchoolOxford City1,24215.3
Oxford Elementary SchoolOxford City83712.9
Oxford Middle SchoolOxford City61914.7
CE Hanna SchoolOxford City53612.8
Oxford Area Vocational SchoolOxford City0

56.1% 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 $890 takes 15% 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.

Rent as a share of income
15.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$890
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$178,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.57Bottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate73.5%Bottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4518,154Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$96$890Bottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$13,002$178,700Bottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income15.4%Bottom 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate10.1%Bottom 46%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
38/ 100
Ranks 3743 of 5,428 published city profiles

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.

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 below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
62
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.8
Bottom 49% nationally
Year over year
−51%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Oxford, AL, the city containing this ZIP code.

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, 1.2 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

40 / 100
Physical resilience

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

TornadoElevated
Inland floodingElevated
EarthquakeModerate
Heat waveModerate
LandslideModerate
LightningModerate
HurricaneModerate

Low or minimal exposure: strong wind, cold wave, 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 publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. 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 · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
22.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
27.5
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 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 36203 rather than 36203 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

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 53 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Birmingham-Shuttlesworth IntlBHM53 mi12,007 ft
Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta IntlATL81 mi12,390 ft
Huntsville Intl-Carl T Jones FldHSV91 mi10,001 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.

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Area Score
56
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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.

36203 vs Oxford

How this ZIP area compares with Oxford as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

36203
Oxford
Median household income
$69,485
vs
$74,268
Per capita income
$34,825
vs
$35,530
Population density
480/sq mi
vs
691/sq mi
Median home value
$178,700
vs
$170,900
Median gross rent
$890
vs
$925
Homeownership rate
73.5%
vs
75.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher
24.3%
vs
24.8%
Poverty rate
16.8%
vs
15.8%
Median age
38.4
vs
38.3

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.