Lee County vs Shelby County

A side-by-side comparison of Lee County and Shelby County: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Shelby County has the higher population (226,955 vs 177,663 in Lee County). Shelby County has the higher median household income ($93,543 vs $61,123 in Lee County). Shelby County has the higher median home value ($298,700 vs $238,700 in Lee County).

Population, income & housing

	Lee County	Shelby County
Population	177,663	226,955
Median age	33.6 yrs	40.0 yrs
Median household income	$61,123	$93,543
Median home value	$238,700	$298,700
Median gross rent	$999	$1,348
Housing units	77,509	90,805
Homeownership rate	65.7%	81.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	41.3%	46.2%
Unemployment rate	3.7%	2.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lee County	Shelby County
Population	161,152 → 177,663 (+10.2%)	213,432 → 226,955 (+6.3%)
Median household income	$51,463 → $61,123 (+18.8%)	$77,799 → $93,543 (+20.2%)
Median home value	$169,300 → $238,700 (+41.0%)	$211,900 → $298,700 (+41.0%)
Median gross rent	$856 → $999 (+16.7%)	$1,047 → $1,348 (+28.7%)

Lee County

Population

161,152177,663

Median household income

$51,463$61,123

Median home value

$169,300$238,700

Median gross rent

$856$999

Shelby County

Population

213,432226,955

Median household income

$77,799$93,543

Median home value

$211,900$298,700

Median gross rent

$1,047$1,348

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Lee County	Shelby County
Under 5	5.5%	5.4%
5 to 17	15.7%	17.7%
18 to 24	17.0%	8.3%
25 to 34	13.7%	12.1%
35 to 44	12.4%	13.6%
45 to 54	11.6%	13.8%
55 to 64	11.2%	12.7%
65 to 74	8.1%	10.0%
75 and over	4.9%	6.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lee County	Shelby County
White (non-Hispanic)	65.9%	74.0%
Black or African American	21.9%	13.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.2%
Asian	4.2%	2.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	0.5%
Two or more races	2.2%	2.9%
Hispanic or Latino	5.3%	7.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lee County	Shelby County
No high school diploma	8.6%	6.0%
High school graduate	21.8%	20.5%
Some college or associate's	28.3%	27.4%
Bachelor's degree	22.6%	30.1%
Graduate or professional degree	18.7%	16.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lee County	Shelby County
Drove alone	79.5%	76.7%
Carpooled	7.6%	6.8%
Public transit	0.8%	0.1%
Walked	2.9%	0.6%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.0%
Worked from home	8.3%	15.2%
Other means	0.8%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lee County	Shelby County
1-unit, detached	57.3%	76.4%
1-unit, attached	4.1%	5.0%
2 to 4 units	6.0%	1.6%
5 to 19 units	10.6%	6.6%
20 or more units	6.5%	2.7%
Mobile home & other	15.6%	7.7%

Poverty & households

	Lee County	Shelby County
Poverty rate	18.9%	6.9%
Average household size	2.51	2.61
Mean commute (minutes)	22	30
Median year structure built	1997	1997