Morgan County vs Shelby County

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

Morgan 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 123,742 in Morgan County). Shelby County has the higher median household income ($93,543 vs $64,858 in Morgan County). Shelby County has the higher median home value ($298,700 vs $193,000 in Morgan County).

Population, income & housing

	Morgan County	Shelby County
Population	123,742	226,955
Median age	40.3 yrs	40.0 yrs
Median household income	$64,858	$93,543
Median home value	$193,000	$298,700
Median gross rent	$835	$1,348
Housing units	53,569	90,805
Homeownership rate	72.5%	81.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	23.2%	46.2%
Unemployment rate	4.0%	2.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Morgan County	Shelby County
Population	119,213 → 123,742 (+3.8%)	213,432 → 226,955 (+6.3%)
Median household income	$52,156 → $64,858 (+24.4%)	$77,799 → $93,543 (+20.2%)
Median home value	$137,000 → $193,000 (+40.9%)	$211,900 → $298,700 (+41.0%)
Median gross rent	$658 → $835 (+26.9%)	$1,047 → $1,348 (+28.7%)

Morgan County

Population

119,213123,742

Median household income

$52,156$64,858

Median home value

$137,000$193,000

Median gross rent

$658$835

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)

	Morgan County	Shelby County
Under 5	6.1%	5.4%
5 to 17	17.2%	17.7%
18 to 24	7.9%	8.3%
25 to 34	11.9%	12.1%
35 to 44	12.6%	13.6%
45 to 54	12.6%	13.8%
55 to 64	13.7%	12.7%
65 to 74	10.6%	10.0%
75 and over	7.3%	6.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Morgan County	Shelby County
White (non-Hispanic)	72.8%	74.0%
Black or African American	12.5%	13.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.2%
Asian	0.5%	2.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	0.5%
Two or more races	3.4%	2.9%
Hispanic or Latino	10.2%	7.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Morgan County	Shelby County
No high school diploma	14.9%	6.0%
High school graduate	31.5%	20.5%
Some college or associate's	30.4%	27.4%
Bachelor's degree	15.3%	30.1%
Graduate or professional degree	8.0%	16.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Morgan County	Shelby County
Drove alone	84.0%	76.7%
Carpooled	8.4%	6.8%
Public transit	0.1%	0.1%
Walked	0.9%	0.6%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	5.6%	15.2%
Other means	0.9%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Morgan County	Shelby County
1-unit, detached	71.6%	76.4%
1-unit, attached	3.7%	5.0%
2 to 4 units	4.1%	1.6%
5 to 19 units	7.1%	6.6%
20 or more units	2.6%	2.7%
Mobile home & other	10.8%	7.7%

Poverty & households

	Morgan County	Shelby County
Poverty rate	13.6%	6.9%
Average household size	2.49	2.61
Mean commute (minutes)	24	30
Median year structure built	1983	1997