City safety & data profile

Albert LeaMN

Albert Lea, MN is a 18K-resident city in Freeborn County with a median household income of $64,603.

Freeborn County, Minnesota. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Albert Lea, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Albert Lea has a population larger than 37% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $157,500, and 1 hospital serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-04

18K
Population (place)
Bottom 38%
By size
$64,603
Median income (place)
$157,500
Median home (place)
12.8%
Poverty rate (place)
My saved cities

The read on Albert Lea

Albert Lea posts a median household income higher than 29% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 hospital serves the Albert Lea area.

Bottom 30%
by median income, US cities
1
hospital in & near Albert Lea

Where Albert Lea income ranks nationally

Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)

$64,603 Bottom 29% higher than 29% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Albert Lea $0 $260,000 every profiled place, bucketed by value

Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year

Largest cities in MN

Population among 97 MN places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.

residents

What this shows Minneapolis is the largest MN city on this list; Rogers leads median income.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

Highest median incomes in MN

Median household income among the same 97-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.

median

What this shows Rogers posts the highest place-level median income in MN; Minneapolis is largest by headcount.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

The quick read

Reading Albert Lea, MN beyond the headline numbers

Albert Lea sits inside Freeborn County, Minnesota, at roughly 43.65°N, -93.37°W. Population 17,674, $64,603 median household income. Median home value $157,500, median rent $857. Poverty rate 12.8%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

1 hospital in/around Albert Lea, 5/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER.

Poverty in Albert Lea, MN stands at 12.8%, above the midpoint of reporting cities. A median income can look comfortable while a share this size sits well beneath it, which is why the two figures belong together.

Housing is inexpensive against local pay -- the median home in Albert Lea runs about 2.4 years of median household income, in the cheapest quarter of reporting cities.

Only 7.1% of Albert Lea workers report working from home, the lowest quarter of reporting cities -- an economy still built around showing up somewhere.

Among the CDC measures on this page, coronary heart disease departs furthest from its peer median: 8.4% in Albert Lea, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,757 cities reporting that measure.

At 44.3 years, Albert Lea's median age is in the oldest quarter of reporting cities.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Albert Lea from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.

Population (place)
17,674
Albert Lea · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$64,603
-28% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$157,500
-62% vs avg
Median Age (place)
44.3
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Freeborn County): Albert Lea's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.

20132024
Population
31K-2%
Median Income
$71,023+59%
Median Home Value
$171,100+65%
Poverty Rate
10.6%-4%
Unemployment
4.6%-15%

Economics

Economics indicators for Albert Lea, MN
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$857/mo
Poverty Rate
12.8% +3% vs avg
Unemployment 5.7%
Bachelor's Degree+ 17.4%
Work From Home 7.1%
Public Transit 0.2%

Population

White 79.8%
African American 2.4%
Asian 4.9%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

High Blood Pressure
36.4%
Obesity
36.4%
Short Sleep Duration
33.2%
Physical Inactivity
32.2%
Binge Drinking
17.1%
Current Smoking
16.7%
Frequent Mental Distress
15.9%
Frequent Physical Distress
14.4%
Diabetes
13.4%
Lack of Health Insurance
11.5%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 58.6%
Annual Checkup 75.6%

Other Measures

Current Asthma
10.1%
Coronary Heart Disease
8.4%
Stroke
4.3%

Hospitals 1 total

Rating Distribution
★★★★★
1
★★★★
0
★★★
0
★★
0
0
Average Rating
5/5
Total Hospitals
1
With ER
1
MAYO CLINIC HEALTH SYSTEM - ALBERT LEA AND AUSTIN
ALBERT LEA · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★★★★

What alerts and safety updates affect Albert Lea?

No area-tagged alerts are on record for Albert Lea right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet MN-ALBERT-LEA · Albert Lea

Albert Lea: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.

  • FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
  • LEAD-NONE Feed idle
  • DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed

Counts reflect published articles tagged to Albert Lea; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Minnesota state hubs · Methodology

Read with this city profile

Frequently Asked Questions 6

What is the population of Albert Lea, MN?
Albert Lea, MN has a population of 17,674 people, located in Freeborn County, Minnesota.
What is the median household income in Albert Lea?
The median household income in Albert Lea, MN is $64,603 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 12.8%.
What is the median home value in Albert Lea?
The median home value in Albert Lea, MN is $157,500. Median rent is $857/month.
What are the top health concerns in Albert Lea?
The top health indicators in Albert Lea include High Blood Pressure (36.4%), Obesity (36.4%), Short Sleep Duration (33.2%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in Albert Lea?
Albert Lea has 1 hospital with an average rating of 5/5 stars. 1 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in Albert Lea?
The median age in Albert Lea, MN is 44.3 years. 17.4% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

Two ACS-derived peer sets for Albert Lea, both outside Minnesota so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside MN (12.8% here).

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside MN ($64,603 here).

Compare Albert Lea with another city

Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.

Quick picks:

Nearby Cities 8

Using Albert Lea's profile

Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.

  • Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Albert Lea area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
  • Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
  • Compare Albert Lea against Minnesota peers on any ranking lens. Explore Minnesota

Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.

Data Sources

All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Freeborn County) where that is the smallest published unit.

Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.