Fort Payne vs Sylvania

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

Fort Payne and Sylvania 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 2,005 in Sylvania). Sylvania has the higher median household income ($53,973 vs $48,623 in Fort Payne). Fort Payne has the higher median home value ($158,100 vs $129,400 in Sylvania).

Population, income & housing

	Fort Payne	Sylvania
Population	14,886	2,005
Median age	39.3 yrs	34.7 yrs
Median household income	$48,623	$53,973
Median home value	$158,100	$129,400
Median gross rent	$670	$638
Housing units	6,497	816
Homeownership rate	67.3%	67.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	17.5%	20.9%
Unemployment rate	6.0%	5.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Fort Payne	Sylvania
Population	14,115 → 14,886 (+5.5%)	2,546 → 2,005 (-21.2%)
Median household income	$40,273 → $48,623 (+20.7%)	$51,385 → $53,973 (+5.0%)
Median home value	$124,900 → $158,100 (+26.6%)	$97,600 → $129,400 (+32.6%)
Median gross rent	$595 → $670 (+12.6%)	$631 → $638 (+1.1%)

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

Sylvania

Population

2,5462,005

Median household income

$51,385$53,973

Median home value

$97,600$129,400

Median gross rent

$631$638

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Fort Payne	Sylvania
Under 5	6.2%	6.1%
5 to 17	18.7%	22.9%
18 to 24	9.9%	4.5%
25 to 34	9.8%	17.5%
35 to 44	13.1%	12.6%
45 to 54	12.6%	12.7%
55 to 64	13.2%	10.5%
65 to 74	9.1%	9.1%
75 and over	7.5%	4.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Fort Payne	Sylvania
White (non-Hispanic)	71.3%	81.9%
Black or African American	1.8%	0.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.6%
Asian	0.2%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	1.4%	0.6%
Two or more races	2.0%	4.0%
Hispanic or Latino	23.3%	12.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Fort Payne	Sylvania
No high school diploma	19.9%	18.0%
High school graduate	28.4%	32.0%
Some college or associate's	34.2%	29.2%
Bachelor's degree	10.0%	14.3%
Graduate or professional degree	7.5%	6.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Fort Payne	Sylvania
Drove alone	73.3%	86.9%
Carpooled	17.7%	10.9%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	2.3%	0.3%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	5.9%	1.4%
Other means	0.8%	0.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Fort Payne	Sylvania
1-unit, detached	75.2%	72.7%
1-unit, attached	1.0%	0.5%
2 to 4 units	7.0%	3.6%
5 to 19 units	6.4%	0.2%
20 or more units	1.5%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	8.8%	23.0%

Poverty & households

	Fort Payne	Sylvania
Poverty rate	23.5%	10.6%
Average household size	2.56	2.84
Mean commute (minutes)	19	28
Median year structure built	1977	1985