City safety & data profile
GadsdenAL
Gadsden, AL is a 36K-resident city in Etowah County with a median household income of $40,345.
Etowah County, Alabama. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Gadsden, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Gadsden has a population larger than 70% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $116,800, and 3 hospitals serving the surrounding area.
Data updated 2026-09-03
- 36K
- Population (place)
- Top 30%
- By size
- $40,345
- Median income (place)
- $116,800
- Median home (place)
- 28.1%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Gadsden
Gadsden posts a median household income higher than 2% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 3 hospitals serve the Gadsden area.
- Bottom 3%
- by median income, US cities
- 3
- hospitals in & near Gadsden
Where Gadsden income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$40,345 Bottom 2% higher than 2% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
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 AL
Population among 65 AL places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.
- Huntsville
Huntsville, AL
215,006 residents
- Birmingham
Birmingham, AL
196,357 residents
- Montgomery
Montgomery, AL
195,287 residents
- Mobile
Mobile, AL
183,289 residents
- Tuscaloosa
Tuscaloosa, AL
111,338 residents
- Hoover 84,848
Hoover, AL
84,848 residents
- Dothan 68,567
Dothan, AL
68,567 residents
- Auburn 62,059
Auburn, AL
62,059 residents
- Decatur 55,437
Decatur, AL
55,437 residents
- Madison 46,962
Madison, AL
46,962 residents
What this shows Huntsville is the largest AL city on this list; Mountain Brook leads median income.
Highest median incomes in AL
Median household income among the same 65-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.
- Mountain Brook
Mountain Brook, AL
$201,479 median
- Madison
Madison, AL
$134,655 median
- Vestavia Hills
Vestavia Hills, AL
$134,369 median
- Trussville
Trussville, AL
$123,275 median
- Chelsea
Chelsea, AL
$115,337 median
- Helena
Helena, AL
$115,139 median
- Hoover
Hoover, AL
$109,253 median
- Pelham
Pelham, AL
$101,094 median
- Homewood
Homewood, AL
$94,485 median
- Fairhope
Fairhope, AL
$94,274 median
What this shows Mountain Brook posts the highest place-level median income in AL; Huntsville is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Gadsden, AL beyond the headline numbers
Gadsden sits inside Etowah County, Alabama, at roughly 34.01°N, -86.01°W. Population 36,084, $40,345 median household income. Median home value $116,800, median rent $808. Poverty rate 28.1%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
3 hospitals in/around Gadsden, 2.5/5 avg rating, 2 with an ER.
28.1% of Gadsden, AL residents live below the poverty line, placing it in the hardest-hit quarter of reporting cities. Read every median on this page against that: half the households are above it, and a large minority are far below.
Housing is inexpensive against local pay -- the median home in Gadsden runs about 2.9 years of median household income, in the cheapest quarter of reporting cities.
Only 4.2% of Gadsden 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, stroke departs furthest from its peer median: 5.8% in Gadsden, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.
Public transit carries 0.1% of Gadsden workers, a smaller share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Gadsden 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.
10-Year Trends 2013–2024
County-level trend (Etowah County): Gadsden'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.
Economics
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 28.1% +127% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 7.2% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 15.5% |
| Work From Home | 4.2% |
| Public Transit | 0.1% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
Hospitals 3 total
What alerts and safety updates affect Gadsden?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Gadsden right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet AL-GADSDEN · Gadsden
Gadsden: 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 Gadsden; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Alabama state hubs · Methodology
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 6
What is the population of Gadsden, AL? ▼
What is the median household income in Gadsden? ▼
What is the median home value in Gadsden? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Gadsden? ▼
How many hospitals are in Gadsden? ▼
What is the median age in Gadsden? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Gadsden, both outside Alabama so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside AL (28.1% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside AL ($40,345 here).
Compare Gadsden 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.
Nearby Cities 8
Using Gadsden'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 Gadsden 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 Gadsden against Alabama peers on any ranking lens. Explore Alabama
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 (Etowah 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.