Leighton vs Muscle Shoals

A side-by-side comparison of Leighton and Muscle Shoals: population, income, housing, and more.

Leighton and Muscle Shoals are places in Alabama. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Muscle Shoals has the higher population (16,670 vs 711 in Leighton). Muscle Shoals has the higher median household income ($70,927 vs $33,214 in Leighton). Muscle Shoals has the higher median home value ($198,300 vs $85,300 in Leighton).

Population, income & housing

	Leighton	Muscle Shoals
Population	711	16,670
Median age	48.2 yrs	37.2 yrs
Median household income	$33,214	$70,927
Median home value	$85,300	$198,300
Median gross rent	$436	$939
Housing units	459	7,118
Homeownership rate	65.9%	68.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	12.8%	24.4%
Unemployment rate	7.1%	2.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Leighton	Muscle Shoals
Population	971 → 711 (-26.8%)	14,103 → 16,670 (+18.2%)
Median household income	$35,357 → $33,214 (-6.1%)	$60,629 → $70,927 (+17.0%)
Median home value	$58,200 → $85,300 (+46.6%)	$147,100 → $198,300 (+34.8%)
Median gross rent	$486 → $436 (-10.3%)	$831 → $939 (+13.0%)

Leighton

Population

971711

Median household income

$35,357$33,214

Median home value

$58,200$85,300

Median gross rent

$486$436

Muscle Shoals

Population

14,10316,670

Median household income

$60,629$70,927

Median home value

$147,100$198,300

Median gross rent

$831$939

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Leighton	Muscle Shoals
Under 5	5.1%	6.2%
5 to 17	8.3%	17.6%
18 to 24	8.6%	6.8%
25 to 34	9.3%	14.2%
35 to 44	14.5%	13.4%
45 to 54	11.5%	13.6%
55 to 64	18.7%	10.8%
65 to 74	15.2%	9.3%
75 and over	8.9%	8.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Leighton	Muscle Shoals
White (non-Hispanic)	43.2%	77.1%
Black or African American	56.5%	13.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.2%
Asian	0.0%	1.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.1%
Two or more races	0.3%	3.1%
Hispanic or Latino	0.0%	4.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Leighton	Muscle Shoals
No high school diploma	14.1%	9.2%
High school graduate	54.8%	30.4%
Some college or associate's	18.4%	36.0%
Bachelor's degree	7.4%	16.5%
Graduate or professional degree	5.4%	7.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Leighton	Muscle Shoals
Drove alone	94.1%	79.4%
Carpooled	0.0%	6.6%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	2.9%	0.2%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	2.9%	13.7%
Other means	0.0%	0.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Leighton	Muscle Shoals
1-unit, detached	62.1%	76.2%
1-unit, attached	0.7%	0.3%
2 to 4 units	4.6%	11.4%
5 to 19 units	2.6%	5.1%
20 or more units	10.2%	3.1%
Mobile home & other	19.8%	3.9%

Poverty & households

	Leighton	Muscle Shoals
Poverty rate	24.5%	10.4%
Average household size	1.99	2.47
Mean commute (minutes)	23	21
Median year structure built	1974	1990