Alabama is known for its low cost of living (CoL) compared to other states, but in some cities, that can come at the expense of higher crime.
Since crime can drive down property values, the most affordable places to live are often the most crime-ridden.
But which Alabama cities have the best ratio of CoL to crime?
According to Costofliving.org, Alabama was only the 39th-most expensive state in the country.
Though detailed crime statistics have been lacking in recent years, Alarms.org measured Alabama’s crime rate to be 44.95 per 1,000 people as of December 2020 using the latest data from the FBI.
1819 News used statistics from Costofliving.org and Alarms.org to examine a list of 24 popular Alabama towns and cities.
Costofliving.org uses several factors to determine the cost of living for an individual person per month, such as rent, utilities, food and transportation.
Some cities, such as Huntsville, were excluded from our list because they failed to submit a crime report to the FBI.
We ranked these 24 cities from cheapest to most expensive and also ranked them from lowest to highest crime rate. By averaging each city’s respective ranks, we gave them a score from 1 to 24, 1 being the best possible ratio of CoL to crime rate and 24 being the worst.
What we found was that some of the more expensive cities in the state, such as Mountain Brook and Vestavia, had considerably better ratios and ranked much higher in the list than they would if only the CoL was considered simply by having well below average crime rates.
Other cities, such as Dothan and Tuscaloosa, ranked higher on the list due to their extremely low CoL, despite having a relatively high crime rate.
Here are Alabama cities with the best CoL to crime ratio:
Auburn
CoL: $1,372
CoL rank: 13
Crime rate (2020): 11.98
Crime rate rank: 1
Score: 4
Mountain Brook
CoL: $1,936
CoL rank: 12
Crime rate (2020): 18.5
Crime rate rank: 3
Score: 7
Pelham
CoL: $1,933
CoL rank: 13
Crime rate (2020): 11.98
Crime rate rank: 1
Score: 7.5
Moody
CoL: $1,936
CoL rank: 14
Crime rate (2020): 19.95
Crime rate rank: 5
Score: 9.5
Enterprise
CoL: $1,891
CoL rank: 10
Crime rate (2020): 32.88
Crime rate rank: 9
Score: 9.5
Florence
CoL: $1,512
CoL rank: 5
Crime rate (2020): 46.81
Crime rate rank: 16
Score: 10.5
Vestavia
CoL: $1,943
CoL rank: 20
Crime rate (2020): 13.53
Crime rate rank: 2
Score: 11
Daphne
CoL: $1,939
CoL rank: 18
Crime rate (2020): 18.75
Crime rate rank: 4
Score: 11
Dothan
CoL: $1,376
CoL rank: 2
Crime rate (2020): 50.62
Crime rate rank: 20
Score: 11
Decatur
CoL: $1,850
CoL rank: 9
Crime rate (2020): 46.78
Crime rate rank: 15
Score: 12
Tuscaloosa
CoL: $1,528
CoL rank: 18
Crime rate (2020): 48.44
Crime rate rank: 18
Score: 12
And here are the Alabama cities with the worst CoL to crime ratio:
Anniston
CoL: $1,928
CoL rank: 11
Crime rate (2020): 108.47
Crime rate rank: 1
Score: 17.5
Homewood
CoL: $1,944
CoL rank: 22
Crime rate (2020): 40.39
Crime rate rank: 12
Score: 17
Oxford
CoL: $1,937
CoL rank: 16
Crime rate (2020): 44.84
Crime rate rank: 17
Score: 16.5
Opelika
CoL: $1,940
CoL rank: 19
Crime rate (2020): 44.84
Crime rate rank: 17
Score: 16.5
Prattville
CoL: $1,943
CoL rank: 21
Crime rate (2020): 36.53
Crime rate rank: 11
Score: 16
Athens
CoL: $1,946
CoL rank: 24
Crime rate (2020): 29.84
Crime rate rank: 8
Score: 16
Other scores across the state:
Northport: 12.5
Mobile: 12.5
Gadsden: 12.5
Montgomery: 13
Alabaster: 14.5
Foley: 15
Birmingham: 15.5
To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email will.blakely@1819news.com or find him on Twitter and Facebook.
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