Selma, Alabama
Area Profile
17,057 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Selma, in Dallas County.
Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 6.0% and the Opportunity signal places Selma in the bottom 2%.
Rent takes 26% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 2.9 times that income.
Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by inland flooding, tornado and heat wave.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 6.0% is lower than 7% of the 3,904 measured US cities.
Employment fell 1.5% over the past year, to 6,080 employed residents.
Median household income of $33,197 is below 95% of measured US cities.
| Metric | Value | Compared with peers | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income ±$7,752 | $33,197 | Bottom 5% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$2,667 | $25,156 | Bottom 21% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Poverty rate | 30.8% | Top 10% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute | 26.1 min | Bottom 47% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | 19.9% | Bottom 48% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Employment | 6,080 | Bottom 1% | June 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years) | -1.2% | Bottom 28% | June 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year) | -1.5% | Bottom 33% | June 2026 |
| Labor force | 6,468 | Bottom 1% | June 2026 |
| Labor force participation | 55.4% | Bottom 34% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year) | 1.0% | Top 5% | June 2026 |
| Unemployment rate | 6.0% | Top 7% | June 2026 |
Housing & affordability
How it’s calculated →Median rent of $713 takes 26% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.
A median home costs 2.9 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 | 2.91 | Bottom 49% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate | 46.0% | Bottom 7% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±395 | 9,431 | Top 6% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median gross rent ±$44 | $713 | Bottom 17% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$8,819 | $96,500 | Bottom 17% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income | 25.8% | Top 15% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate | 15.4% | Top 33% | 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 fallen 8% since 2020, reaching 16,312 in 2024.
At 0.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.
Weather & climate
6 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 35°F.
Normal annual precipitation is 53.4 inches.
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Annual precipitation | 53.4" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low | 35°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high | 91°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months | 6 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Seasonal temperature swing | 35°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: lightning, ice storm, wildfire, hail, winter weather.
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.
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.
Dallas County records 49.8 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 52.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.
Drug overdose deaths run at 16.0 per 100,000 residents in Dallas 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 Dallas 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 Selma rather than Selma 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
2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 38 miles away.
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montgomery Rgnl (Dannelly Fld) | MGM | 38 mi | 9,020 ft |
| Birmingham-Shuttlesworth Intl | BHM | 81 mi | 12,007 ft |
| Golden Triangle Rgnl | GTR | 115 mi | 8,003 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.
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 Selma 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 |
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.