Muscle Shoals vs Sheffield

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

Muscle Shoals and Sheffield 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 9,334 in Sheffield). Muscle Shoals has the higher median household income ($70,927 vs $42,097 in Sheffield). Muscle Shoals has the higher median home value ($198,300 vs $127,100 in Sheffield).

Population, income & housing

	Muscle Shoals	Sheffield
Population	16,670	9,334
Median age	37.2 yrs	40.1 yrs
Median household income	$70,927	$42,097
Median home value	$198,300	$127,100
Median gross rent	$939	$850
Housing units	7,118	5,088
Homeownership rate	68.8%	58.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	24.4%	15.9%
Unemployment rate	2.4%	4.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Muscle Shoals	Sheffield
Population	14,103 → 16,670 (+18.2%)	8,986 → 9,334 (+3.9%)
Median household income	$60,629 → $70,927 (+17.0%)	$34,194 → $42,097 (+23.1%)
Median home value	$147,100 → $198,300 (+34.8%)	$90,000 → $127,100 (+41.2%)
Median gross rent	$831 → $939 (+13.0%)	$645 → $850 (+31.8%)

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

Sheffield

Population

8,9869,334

Median household income

$34,194$42,097

Median home value

$90,000$127,100

Median gross rent

$645$850

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Muscle Shoals	Sheffield
Under 5	6.2%	3.7%
5 to 17	17.6%	16.4%
18 to 24	6.8%	11.2%
25 to 34	14.2%	12.5%
35 to 44	13.4%	10.4%
45 to 54	13.6%	10.8%
55 to 64	10.8%	13.4%
65 to 74	9.3%	13.6%
75 and over	8.2%	8.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Muscle Shoals	Sheffield
White (non-Hispanic)	77.1%	67.7%
Black or African American	13.3%	26.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.0%
Asian	1.2%	0.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.1%
Some other race	0.1%	0.7%
Two or more races	3.1%	2.9%
Hispanic or Latino	4.9%	2.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Muscle Shoals	Sheffield
No high school diploma	9.2%	12.3%
High school graduate	30.4%	35.9%
Some college or associate's	36.0%	35.9%
Bachelor's degree	16.5%	10.2%
Graduate or professional degree	7.8%	5.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Muscle Shoals	Sheffield
Drove alone	79.4%	80.6%
Carpooled	6.6%	12.0%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.2%	0.6%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	13.7%	5.8%
Other means	0.1%	1.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Muscle Shoals	Sheffield
1-unit, detached	76.2%	77.5%
1-unit, attached	0.3%	0.1%
2 to 4 units	11.4%	10.4%
5 to 19 units	5.1%	4.4%
20 or more units	3.1%	5.7%
Mobile home & other	3.9%	1.9%

Poverty & households

	Muscle Shoals	Sheffield
Poverty rate	10.4%	25.7%
Average household size	2.47	2.12
Mean commute (minutes)	21	20
Median year structure built	1990	1964