What is the safest county in Alabama?

Of the 24 Alabama counties measured here, Shelby County records the lowest violent crime rate at 128 offenses per 100,000 residents, against 245 for the median comparable US county. Homes there closed at a median of $375,000 over the last 12 months.

Is this every county in Alabama?

No. It covers 24 of the state's 67 counties, the ones where police agencies report at least 90 percent of the population to the FBI, the area has at least 50,000 residents and 250 tracked closings, and the resulting rate falls inside the sanity bounds we apply. The larger places that miss those bars are listed on the page with the reason.

Does a lower crime rate mean higher home prices?

Less than most people assume. Comparing the safest third of these counties with the highest-crime third, the median closed price is 10 percent higher and household income 6 percent higher. Across 688 US counties we found that once income and density are held constant, a county's crime rate stops predicting its home prices. At the scale of a block, the research says violent crime does lower nearby values.

Is this crime rate for my neighborhood?

No. The FBI publishes these figures for whole counties, so every part of a county carries the same number here, from its densest district to its farmland. It is useful for narrowing a search and not a substitute for looking at a specific address.

Are these rents asking rents or lease rents?

They are the median asking rent on rental listings in the county over the last 12 months. That is what landlords advertised, a guide to the market rather than a lease figure.

Safest Counties in Alabama: 24 Ranked (2026)

Alabama counties get ranked for safety constantly, usually with numbers nobody sources. These come from the crime figures Alabama police agencies filed with the FBI, set beside 66,366 closing records from the last 12 months.

Twenty-four counties clear the bar. The crime rates here are built from the 3,633,091 residents those police agencies actually report on. Each figure is a single county-wide figure, so treat this as a way to narrow a search rather than a verdict on any street.

The ranking

#	County	Violent per 100k	Property per 100k	Median closed price	Median asking rent	Median income
1	Shelby	128	638	$375,000	$1,895	$90,280
2	Marshall	147	998	$235,000	$1,500	$59,882
3	DeKalb	151	840	$235,000	n/a	$50,614
4	Elmore	159	1,075	$259,900	$1,600	$73,125
5	Cullman	162	1,282	$250,000	$1,495	$61,231
6	Baldwin	184	891	$369,975	$2,000	$74,248
7	St. Clair	186	899	$272,000	$1,645	$78,349
8	Colbert	190	1,104	$210,000	$1,050	$57,770
9	Etowah	203	1,213	$229,900	$1,000	$52,504
10	Blount	231	1,079	$214,000	n/a	$64,962
11	Jackson	255	1,529	$247,500	$1,200	$51,479
12	Walker	259	1,849	$182,000	$1,200	$57,950
13	Dale	264	1,222	$170,000	$1,100	$54,697
14	Autauga	282	1,256	$220,000	$1,800	$68,857
15	Talladega	327	1,817	$201,720	$1,300	$59,491
16	Tuscaloosa	349	1,628	$263,025	$1,600	$61,117
17	Lauderdale	358	1,295	$239,000	$1,200	$63,895
18	Lee	361	1,566	$362,042	$1,800	$62,301
19	Morgan	379	1,338	$239,000	$1,395	$70,387
20	Mobile	478	1,352	$223,788	$1,537	$55,538
21	Coffee	490	1,388	$208,100	$1,450	$64,737
22	Calhoun	535	1,754	$205,000	$1,025	$51,841
23	Jefferson	592	2,572	$251,897	$1,319	$64,726
24	Montgomery	594	2,681	$147,000	$1,350	$60,063

The median values across these 24 counties are 261 violent and 1,289 property offenses per 100,000, a closed price of $235,000 and a household income of $61,174. Asking rents are shown for the 22 of them with enough rental listings, and the median of those is $1,422 a month.

County by county

1. Shelby County

At 128 violent offenses per 100,000, Shelby sits in the lowest quarter of the places on this list. That is below the median comparable US county, which records 245. Homes changed hands at a median $375,000, around 160 percent of what the rest of this list recorded. Low crime and high prices arrive together here, which is the arrangement buyers assume is universal and is not. Households there earn a median of $90,280, about 148 percent of the median for these counties. Its property rate is also among the lowest here, 638 per 100,000, or 0.5 times the median comparable US county. Resideline publishes a separate page for Hoover, the market with the most tracked closings in this county's ZIP codes.

2. Marshall County

Marshall records 147 violent offenses per 100,000 residents, which places it in the lowest quarter of the Alabama counties measured here. The median comparable US county records 245, so it is quieter than most of the country too. The median closed price, $235,000, sits near the center of the counties measured. Property crime is low too, at 998 per 100,000, the bottom quarter of this list and 0.8 times the median comparable US county. Asking rents run about $1,500 a month. For prices at street level, see Guntersville, the market with the most tracked closings in this county's ZIP codes.

3. DeKalb County

Police in DeKalb reported 151 violent offenses per 100,000 people, putting it in the lowest quarter of this list. That is below the median comparable US county, which records 245. At $235,000, its median closed price is unremarkable against the rest of this list. The gap between local wages and local prices is wide: 4.6 times household income, in the top quarter of these counties. Property crime is low too, at 840 per 100,000, the bottom quarter of this list and 0.7 times the median comparable US county.

4. Elmore County

Elmore records 159 violent offenses per 100,000 residents, which places it in the lowest quarter of the Alabama counties measured here. The median comparable US county records 245, so it is quieter than most of the country too. Homes there closed at a median of $259,900, close to the middle of this list. Safe and expensive is the usual pairing on this list, and this is one of its clearest cases. Households there earn a median of $73,125, about 120 percent of the median for these counties. Property crime is low too, at 1,075 per 100,000, the bottom quarter of this list and 0.9 times the median comparable US county.

5. Cullman County

Cullman's violent crime rate is 162 per 100,000 residents, the lowest quarter among the Alabama counties Resideline can measure. That is below the median comparable US county, which records 245. The median closed price, $250,000, sits near the center of the counties measured. Its property rate, 1,282 per 100,000, sits in the middle of these counties. Asking rents run about $1,495 a month. Resideline publishes a separate page for Cullman, the market with the most tracked closings in this county's ZIP codes.

6. Baldwin County

Police in Baldwin reported 184 violent offenses per 100,000 people, putting it in the lowest quarter of this list. That is below the median comparable US county, which records 245. Homes there closed at a median of $369,975, about 157 percent of the median across this list. Quiet and costly at the same time, which is how most of the safest places on this list look. Against what households there earn, a home costs 5.0 times median income, in the top quarter of this list. Property crime is low too, at 891 per 100,000, the bottom quarter of this list and 0.8 times the median comparable US county. For prices at street level, see Daphne, the market with the most tracked closings in this county's ZIP codes.

7. St. Clair County

At 186 violent offenses per 100,000, St. Clair sits in the middle range of the places on this list. The median comparable US county records 245, so it is quieter than most of the country too. A median closing price of $272,000 puts it at roughly 116 percent of the middle figure for this list. Households there earn a median of $78,349, about 128 percent of the median for these counties. Its property rate is among the lowest here, 899 per 100,000, or 0.8 times the median comparable US county. Asking rents run about $1,645 a month. Resideline publishes a separate page for Pell City, the market with the most tracked closings in this county's ZIP codes.

8. Colbert County

Police in Colbert reported 190 violent offenses per 100,000 people, putting it in the middle range of this list. That is below the median comparable US county, which records 245. The median closed price, $210,000, sits near the center of the counties measured. Property offenses run at 1,104 per 100,000, in the middle of this list. Asking rents run about $1,050 a month.

9. Etowah County

At 203 violent offenses per 100,000, Etowah sits in the middle range of the places on this list. That is below the median comparable US county, which records 245. At $229,900, its median closed price is unremarkable against the rest of this list. Homes cost 4.4 times what the median household there earns, among the steepest ratios on this list. Its property rate, 1,213 per 100,000, sits in the middle of these counties. The median rental listing asks $1,000 a month. For prices at street level, see Gadsden, the market with the most tracked closings in this county's ZIP codes.

10. Blount County

Police in Blount reported 231 violent offenses per 100,000 people, putting it in the middle range of this list. That is close to the median comparable US county, which records 245. The median closed price, $214,000, sits near the center of the counties measured. Local incomes go further here than almost anywhere else on this list, with homes at 3.3 times median household income. Its property rate, 1,079 per 100,000, sits in the middle of these counties.

11. Jackson County

Jackson records 255 violent offenses per 100,000 residents, which places it in the middle range of the Alabama counties measured here. That is close to the median comparable US county, which records 245. At $247,500, its median closed price is unremarkable against the rest of this list. Against what households there earn, a home costs 4.8 times median income, in the top quarter of this list. Property offenses run at 1,529 per 100,000, in the middle of this list. The median rental listing asks $1,200 a month.

12. Walker County

Police in Walker reported 259 violent offenses per 100,000 people, putting it in the middle range of this list. That is close to the median comparable US county, which records 245. A median closing price of $182,000 puts it at roughly 77 percent of the middle figure for this list. Against local incomes it is among the most affordable counties measured, at 3.1 times median household income. Property crime is the higher of its two figures at 1,849 per 100,000, the top quarter of this list and 1.6 times the median comparable US county. Asking rents of $1,200 a month against that price put it in the top quarter of this list for gross return. Resideline publishes a separate page for Jasper, the market with the most tracked closings in this county's ZIP codes.

Does safety set the price in Alabama?

Somewhat, and less than you would expect. The safest third of these counties runs 10 percent above the highest-crime third on price. But the same safe places also earn 6 percent more, so most of that gap is the income gap wearing a different label.

That matches what we found nationally: across 688 counties, once income and density are held constant, a crime rate stops predicting home prices. The full analysis is in our study of crime and home prices.

That is a county-level result. Within a county, research at the scale of a block or a neighborhood finds that violent crime does lower the value of the homes nearest to it, so use these figures to compare counties, not streets.

The counties we cannot rank

Larger Alabama places are missing from the table above. Every one with more than 150,000 residents is listed here with the reason.

•Madison, with about 423,000 residents, does not have enough closings in our data for a reliable price median, which is a limit of our sales coverage rather than of the FBI's.

Reporting to the FBI is voluntary and incomplete. Where a place's agencies cover only part of its population, the rate is built on the part that reported, so it describes those communities rather than the whole area. We publish at 90 percent coverage or better, which is a line we chose rather than a point where the data becomes reliable.

How to read this list

The right way to use this is to narrow the list, then check the address. Averages at this scale hide the variation that actually matters once you are choosing between two houses.

Prices and rents are as of September 8, 2026, from closings and rental listings Resideline tracks over the previous 12 months. Rent figures are the median asking rent on listings, not lease figures. Crime is the 2025 FBI Crime Data Explorer release, measured for the whole county, and violent crime means murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Household income is the Census SAIPE 2023 estimate of the county's median household income. Where this page compares a rate with the median comparable US county, that figure (245 violent and 1188 property offenses per 100,000) is the median across the 874 US counties with at least 50,000 residents whose agencies reported on 90 percent or more of them for the year.