Fort Payne vs Rainsville

A side-by-side comparison of Fort Payne and Rainsville: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Fort Payne has the higher population (14,886 vs 5,613 in Rainsville). Rainsville has the higher median household income ($64,140 vs $48,623 in Fort Payne). Rainsville has the higher median home value ($207,800 vs $158,100 in Fort Payne).

Population, income & housing

	Fort Payne	Rainsville
Population	14,886	5,613
Median age	39.3 yrs	46.4 yrs
Median household income	$48,623	$64,140
Median home value	$158,100	$207,800
Median gross rent	$670	$647
Housing units	6,497	2,452
Homeownership rate	67.3%	84.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	17.5%	28.1%
Unemployment rate	6.0%	1.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Fort Payne	Rainsville
Population	14,115 → 14,886 (+5.5%)	5,041 → 5,613 (+11.3%)
Median household income	$40,273 → $48,623 (+20.7%)	$33,295 → $64,140 (+92.6%)
Median home value	$124,900 → $158,100 (+26.6%)	$109,000 → $207,800 (+90.6%)
Median gross rent	$595 → $670 (+12.6%)	$569 → $647 (+13.7%)

Fort Payne

Population

14,11514,886

Median household income

$40,273$48,623

Median home value

$124,900$158,100

Median gross rent

$595$670

Rainsville

Population

5,0415,613

Median household income

$33,295$64,140

Median home value

$109,000$207,800

Median gross rent

$569$647

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Fort Payne	Rainsville
Under 5	6.2%	7.3%
5 to 17	18.7%	15.8%
18 to 24	9.9%	8.4%
25 to 34	9.8%	9.9%
35 to 44	13.1%	7.4%
45 to 54	12.6%	10.1%
55 to 64	13.2%	18.6%
65 to 74	9.1%	18.5%
75 and over	7.5%	4.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Fort Payne	Rainsville
White (non-Hispanic)	71.3%	82.3%
Black or African American	1.8%	1.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.3%
Asian	0.2%	1.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	1.4%	0.0%
Two or more races	2.0%	4.0%
Hispanic or Latino	23.3%	11.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Fort Payne	Rainsville
No high school diploma	19.9%	17.0%
High school graduate	28.4%	23.3%
Some college or associate's	34.2%	31.6%
Bachelor's degree	10.0%	18.8%
Graduate or professional degree	7.5%	9.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Fort Payne	Rainsville
Drove alone	73.3%	93.2%
Carpooled	17.7%	2.2%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	2.3%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	5.9%	4.7%
Other means	0.8%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Fort Payne	Rainsville
1-unit, detached	75.2%	84.6%
1-unit, attached	1.0%	1.4%
2 to 4 units	7.0%	8.0%
5 to 19 units	6.4%	1.2%
20 or more units	1.5%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	8.8%	4.8%

Poverty & households

	Fort Payne	Rainsville
Poverty rate	23.5%	15.7%
Average household size	2.56	2.47
Mean commute (minutes)	19	20
Median year structure built	1977	1992