Etowah County vs Houston County

A side-by-side comparison of Etowah County and Houston County: population, income, housing, and more.

Etowah County and Houston County are counties in Alabama. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Houston County has the higher population (107,628 vs 103,208 in Etowah County). Houston County has the higher median household income ($57,531 vs $53,070 in Etowah County). Houston County has the higher median home value ($178,000 vs $160,600 in Etowah County).

Population, income & housing

	Etowah County	Houston County
Population	103,208	107,628
Median age	41.8 yrs	40.3 yrs
Median household income	$53,070	$57,531
Median home value	$160,600	$178,000
Median gross rent	$807	$905
Housing units	47,487	49,774
Homeownership rate	73.8%	63.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	17.5%	22.8%
Unemployment rate	6.3%	4.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Etowah County	Houston County
Population	102,748 → 103,208 (+0.4%)	104,702 → 107,628 (+2.8%)
Median household income	$44,637 → $53,070 (+18.9%)	$47,580 → $57,531 (+20.9%)
Median home value	$113,700 → $160,600 (+41.2%)	$137,600 → $178,000 (+29.4%)
Median gross rent	$669 → $807 (+20.6%)	$754 → $905 (+20.0%)

Etowah County

Population

102,748103,208

Median household income

$44,637$53,070

Median home value

$113,700$160,600

Median gross rent

$669$807

Houston County

Population

104,702107,628

Median household income

$47,580$57,531

Median home value

$137,600$178,000

Median gross rent

$754$905

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Etowah County	Houston County
Under 5	5.8%	6.2%
5 to 17	16.0%	16.8%
18 to 24	7.9%	7.7%
25 to 34	12.1%	12.6%
35 to 44	11.8%	12.6%
45 to 54	13.4%	12.4%
55 to 64	13.5%	13.2%
65 to 74	11.9%	10.9%
75 and over	7.6%	7.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Etowah County	Houston County
White (non-Hispanic)	76.5%	63.8%
Black or African American	15.0%	27.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.2%
Asian	0.7%	1.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	0.5%
Two or more races	2.5%	3.0%
Hispanic or Latino	5.0%	4.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Etowah County	Houston County
No high school diploma	14.2%	12.6%
High school graduate	34.0%	32.1%
Some college or associate's	34.3%	32.5%
Bachelor's degree	10.6%	14.3%
Graduate or professional degree	6.9%	8.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Etowah County	Houston County
Drove alone	87.6%	85.5%
Carpooled	6.7%	8.3%
Public transit	0.1%	0.2%
Walked	0.8%	0.7%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.1%
Worked from home	3.8%	4.2%
Other means	0.9%	1.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Etowah County	Houston County
1-unit, detached	77.6%	70.3%
1-unit, attached	0.6%	1.2%
2 to 4 units	4.4%	7.0%
5 to 19 units	4.5%	6.8%
20 or more units	2.2%	1.9%
Mobile home & other	10.8%	12.8%

Poverty & households

	Etowah County	Houston County
Poverty rate	17.1%	18.0%
Average household size	2.60	2.50
Mean commute (minutes)	25	22
Median year structure built	1975	1984