City safety & data profile

OpelikaAL

Opelika, AL is a 30K-resident city in Lee County with a median household income of $65,004.

Lee County, Alabama. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Opelika, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Opelika has a population larger than 62% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $241,800, and 1 hospital serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-04

30K
Population (place)
Top 38%
By size
$65,004
Median income (place)
$241,800
Median home (place)
16%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Opelika

Opelika posts a median household income higher than 30% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 hospital serves the Opelika area.

Bottom 31%
by median income, US cities
1
hospital in & near Opelika

Where Opelika income ranks nationally

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

$65,004 Bottom 30% higher than 30% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Opelika $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 AL

Population among 65 AL places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.

residents

What this shows Huntsville is the largest AL city on this list; Mountain Brook leads median income.

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

Highest median incomes in AL

Median household income among the same 65-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.

median

What this shows Mountain Brook posts the highest place-level median income in AL; Huntsville is largest by headcount.

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

The quick read

Reading Opelika, AL beyond the headline numbers

Opelika sits inside Lee County, Alabama, at roughly 32.65°N, -85.38°W. Population 29,527, $65,004 median household income. Median home value $241,800, median rent $950. Poverty rate 16%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

1 hospital in/around Opelika, 3/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER.

Poverty in Opelika, AL stands at 16%, 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.

The median home in Opelika costs roughly 3.7 times median household income, below the midpoint for reporting cities, so ownership remains reachable on a typical local wage.

Only 7.5% of Opelika 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, high blood pressure departs furthest from its peer median: 44.1% in Opelika, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Opelika 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)
29,527
Opelika · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$65,004
-27% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$241,800
-42% vs avg
Median Age (place)
39.9
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Lee County): Opelika'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
181K+25%
Median Income
$65,824+51%
Median Home Value
$262,200+78%
Poverty Rate
18.9%-14%
Unemployment
3.5%-62%

Economics

Economics indicators for Opelika, AL
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$950/mo
Poverty Rate
16% +29% vs avg
Unemployment 5.6%
Bachelor's Degree+ 36.4%
Work From Home 7.5%
Public Transit 1.1%

Population

White 52.9%
African American 39%
Asian 1.8%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

High Blood Pressure
44.1%
Obesity
42.6%
Short Sleep Duration
39.2%
Physical Inactivity
29.9%
Frequent Mental Distress
17.3%
Diabetes
16.1%
Current Smoking
15.2%
Frequent Physical Distress
14.2%
Binge Drinking
13.2%
Lack of Health Insurance
11.3%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 55.6%
Annual Checkup 81.2%

Other Measures

Current Asthma
10.6%
Coronary Heart Disease
7.1%
Stroke
4.3%

Hospitals 1 total

Rating Distribution
★★★★★
0
★★★★
0
★★★
1
★★
0
0
Average Rating
3/5
Total Hospitals
1
With ER
1
THE EAST ALABAMA HEALTHCARE AUTHORITY
OPELIKA · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★★☆☆

What alerts and safety updates affect Opelika?

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

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet AL-OPELIKA · Opelika

Opelika: 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 Opelika; 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 Opelika, AL?
Opelika, AL has a population of 29,527 people, located in Lee County, Alabama.
What is the median household income in Opelika?
The median household income in Opelika, AL is $65,004 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 16%.
What is the median home value in Opelika?
The median home value in Opelika, AL is $241,800. Median rent is $950/month.
What are the top health concerns in Opelika?
The top health indicators in Opelika include High Blood Pressure (44.1%), Obesity (42.6%), Short Sleep Duration (39.2%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in Opelika?
Opelika has 1 hospital with an average rating of 3/5 stars. 1 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in Opelika?
The median age in Opelika, AL is 39.9 years. 36.4% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

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

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside AL (16% here).

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside AL ($65,004 here).

Compare Opelika 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 Opelika'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 Opelika 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 Opelika 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 (Lee 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.