Ariton vs Fort Rucker

A side-by-side comparison of Ariton and Fort Rucker: population, income, housing, and more.

Ariton and Fort Rucker are places in Alabama. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Fort Rucker has the higher population (5,221 vs 706 in Ariton). Fort Rucker has the higher median household income ($75,875 vs $34,943 in Ariton). Since 2019, Fort Rucker's population has grown faster (-1.7% vs -15.7%).

Population, income & housing

	Ariton	Fort Rucker
Population	706	5,221
Median age	33.5 yrs	24.8 yrs
Median household income	$34,943	$75,875
Median home value	$116,900	—
Median gross rent	$804	$1,402
Housing units	268	1,581
Homeownership rate	81.6%	1.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	18.6%	44.3%
Unemployment rate	5.6%	10.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Ariton	Fort Rucker
Population	837 → 706 (-15.7%)	5,311 → 5,221 (-1.7%)
Median household income	$33,000 → $34,943 (+5.9%)	$70,024 → $75,875 (+8.4%)
Median home value	$117,200 → $116,900 (-0.3%)	—
Median gross rent	$408 → $804 (+97.1%)	$1,165 → $1,402 (+20.3%)

Ariton

Population

837706

Median household income

$33,000$34,943

Median home value

$117,200$116,900

Median gross rent

$408$804

Fort Rucker

Population

5,3115,221

Median household income

$70,024$75,875

Median gross rent

$1,165$1,402

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Ariton	Fort Rucker
Under 5	7.2%	17.0%
5 to 17	15.3%	20.3%
18 to 24	11.3%	13.3%
25 to 34	18.4%	36.5%
35 to 44	6.7%	9.7%
45 to 54	15.9%	2.2%
55 to 64	15.3%	0.5%
65 to 74	4.0%	0.5%
75 and over	5.9%	0.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Ariton	Fort Rucker
White (non-Hispanic)	75.4%	64.9%
Black or African American	11.9%	8.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	3.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.8%	0.5%
Two or more races	0.4%	6.9%
Hispanic or Latino	11.5%	16.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Ariton	Fort Rucker
No high school diploma	16.7%	2.9%
High school graduate	42.8%	11.0%
Some college or associate's	21.8%	41.8%
Bachelor's degree	9.9%	37.5%
Graduate or professional degree	8.8%	6.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Ariton	Fort Rucker
Drove alone	87.6%	71.9%
Carpooled	6.2%	7.6%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	2.0%	11.9%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	3.3%	7.8%
Other means	1.0%	0.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Ariton	Fort Rucker
1-unit, detached	75.0%	59.6%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	33.0%
2 to 4 units	4.5%	5.8%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.2%
Mobile home & other	20.5%	1.5%

Poverty & households

	Ariton	Fort Rucker
Poverty rate	27.9%	13.3%
Average household size	3.17	3.24
Mean commute (minutes)	23	14
Median year structure built	1976	1988