Saraland, Alabama

Area Profile

16,404 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Saraland, in Mobile County.

55out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 31% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3279th of 3,904 published cities39
GrowthTop 44% of 2,973 published cities53
Housing affordabilityTop 36% of 4,223 published cities88
ClimateTop 21% of 4,223 published cities78
Physical resilience3289th of 4,182 published cities26
AccessTop 40% of 4,226 published cities94
Economic stability2899th of 4,226 published cities50
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 4.5% and the Opportunity signal places Saraland in the bottom 16%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 83 units authorized over the past twelve months, 35% below the prior year.

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

At a glance

Population
16,404
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$61,509
Bottom 42% nationally
Density
480/sq mi
34.2 sq mi of land
Median age
43.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Mobile County
Alabama
Metro area
Mobile, AL
Nearest major airport
MOB
14 mi · Mobile Rgnl
Median home value
$217,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.5% is lower than 43% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.9% over the past year, to 176,455 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$9,902$61,509Bottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$7,970$41,516Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate10.1%Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute27.4 minTop 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher25.0%Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment176,455Top 31%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.0%Bottom 32%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.9%Bottom 19%June 2026
Labor force184,827Top 31%June 2026
Labor force participation57.8%Bottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$58,170Bottom 9%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$47,000Bottom 16%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.8%Top 14%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.5%Top 43%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202463k61k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $61,509 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 — Mobile, AL
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Registered Nurses5,260$79,490
Retail Salespersons4,900$29,710
Stockers and Order Fillers3,840$35,070
Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive3,780$42,840
Cashiers3,710$28,240
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers3,510$51,010

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 Mobile County, AL, which contains this city.

There are 17.7 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
4
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
17.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Saraland High SchoolSaraland City1,13416.2
Saraland Elementary SchoolSaraland City1,03418.5
Saraland Middle SchoolAdams CampusSaraland City78920.2
Saraland Early Education CenterSaraland City55716.9

46.2% 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 $1,060 takes 21% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.5 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
20.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,060
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$217,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.54Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate78.6%Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4817,430Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$147$1,060Top 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$9,454$217,600Top 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.7%Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate8.2%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 →
Development Momentum
53/ 100
Top 44% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, 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 grown 1% since 2020, reaching 16,458 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before.

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

At 5.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
83
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
5.1
Top 29% nationally
Year over year
−35%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202416k16k
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
2020202220232024202513236
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−58%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 91°F and January a low of 41°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 67.1 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 45, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station MOBILE, 14.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND7.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index58.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation67.1"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall0.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low41°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high91°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index45.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing31°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
45
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
58
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

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. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

26 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneHigh
LightningModerate
Inland floodingModerate
Coastal floodingModerate
DroughtModerate
Cold waveModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, tornado, wildfire, earthquake, hail, winter weather, strong wind, ice storm.

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.

Mobile County records 14.1 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 22.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 20.9 per 100,000 residents in Mobile County.

Homicide
14.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
22.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
20.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
17.5
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 Mobile 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 Saraland rather than Saraland 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 14 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Mobile RgnlMOB14 mi8,502 ft
Stennis IntlHSA87 mi8,498 ft
Bob SikesCEW94 mi8,006 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
55
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Other cities in Mobile, AL

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
MobileMobile County203,41649vs Saraland
PrichardMobile County18,96141vs Saraland
Tillmans CornerMobile County17,677vs Saraland

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.

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
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

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 Saraland

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
3657117,143$62,04755