Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi — known as the Deep South — are home to rich histories of strength and resiliency against all odds. Despite this perseverance, residents and communities across the Deep South are still experiencing the far-reaching consequences of funding cuts to vital support programs such as health care, housing, education, and public infrastructure. Across the Deep South, people with low incomes are more likely to rely on these programs to meet their basic needs. Indeed, these programmatic cuts place people experiencing poverty — some 16% of residents in Alabama — at risk of losing access to doctors, safe and stable housing, and even food simply because they cannot afford it without assistance. Evidence continually demonstrates that government support is vital to healthy families, communities, and ultimately the United States as a whole. As such, there is ample opportunity for policymakers to prioritize people and families that need it most by increasing the infrastructure, income, housing, and nutrition support available to residents of the Deep South.
Definitions to know
- In the U.S. Census, AIAN stands for American Indian and Alaska Native.
- The U.S. Census Bureau considers census blocks with more than 2,000 housing units or 5,000 people to be urban, while all other areas are rural.
- Citizen Voting Age Population – includes US citizens who are of voting age (18 years of age or older). This population may include individuals who are ineligible to vote for reasons other than lack of citizenship or who are under 18 years of age and preregistered.
- Disability numbers include both physical and mental difficulties.
- Food insecurity – when people do not have enough to eat or know where their next meal will come from.
- Medicaid is a government-funded health insurance program that provides free or low-cost medical coverage to individuals and families with low incomes.
- In the U.S. Census, NHPI stands for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander.
- Owner-occupied homes are those inhabited by the owner of the home.
- The Census Bureau defines the poverty line as the minimum income needed for a family or individual to meet basic living expenses. It is based on nationally set income thresholds that vary by family size and composition but do not change by location.
- The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, provides monthly food assistance and support for purchases of healthy food for working families with low-incomes, adults with low incomes age 60 and older, and disabled people with fixed incomes.
- The WIC program is a federally funded nutrition assistance program that provides supplemental nutritious foods, nutrition education, breastfeeding support, and health care referrals to pregnant people with low incomes, postpartum and breastfeeding parents, and infants and children who are at risk of malnutrition.
Demographics
Race and Ethnicity
According to 2019-2023 American Community Survey (ACS) data, Alabama is home to just over 5 million people, of whom 64% (3.2 million) are white, 26% (1.3 million) are Black, 3% (145,000) are multi-racial, and 1% (71,000) are Asian. Other racial groups, including Native American, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and others, make up less than 1% (30,000) of the population combined. About 5% (272,000) of the state’s residents identify as Latinx, and 95% (4.8 million) as non-Latinx.
Black residents are the majority population in 11 counties, including: Greene, Macon, Lowndes, Bullock, Sumter, Perry, Wilcox, Dallas, Montgomery, Hale, and Marengo. Greene County has the highest percentage of Black residents, at 81%. Alabama’s Latinx residents are dispersed throughout the state and make up a small share of the population in many counties. Franklin County has the highest Latinx population percentage, with 20%. The percentage of multiracial residents is highest in Lawrence County, at 7%. Lee County has the highest percentage of Asian residents, at 4%.
Rural and Urban Population
Once a major player in the agricultural industry, Alabama is significantly more rural than much of the United States, and the Deep South is home to part of the country’s “Black Belt.” The U.S. Census Bureau considers census blocks with more than 2,000 housing units or 5,000 people to be urban, while all other areas are rural. Alabama has nearly 2.3 million households, 42% (960,000) of which are in rural areas, 21 percentage points higher than the national rate, according to 2020 census data. Twenty-four of 67 counties are 100% rural. Rural areas often have unique challenges such as an increased need for infrastructure investment and economic development as a result of population decline.
Voting and Registration
Alabama is one of several states that collect race and ethnicity data in the voter registration process. The history of this data collection is rooted in compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark federal law that prohibits racial discrimination in voting, ensuring equal access to the ballot for all citizens, particularly Black people in the South. Indeed, racially discriminatory practices in voting, such as literacy tests and other methods of voter suppression, were not prohibited until 1965. Because of the recordkeeping required by the Voting Rights Act, more robust data is available on registered voters and populations of voting-age residents. Around 76% of Alabama’s population (3.8 million) are residents of voting age according to 2018-2022 ACS data. Alabama has nearly 3.5 million active registered voters as of fall 2024. Among registered voters, 70% (2.4 million) are white, 26% (900,000) are Black, and 1% (52,000) are Latinx. Black registered voters are a majority in 11 counties, while white voters are the majority or plurality in the remaining counties. The 11 counties are: Greene, Macon, Sumter, Bullock, Lowndes, Perry, Wilcox, Dallas, Montgomery, Hale and Marengo. Black voters make up 81% of the registered voters in Greene County. Franklin County has the largest share of Latinx registered voters, at 6%.
Poverty
Alabama has one of the highest percentages of households experiencing financial hardship. This hardship is an economic divestment symptom of a bigger problem that is rooted in racism, a weak safety net, and the decline of the Deep South’s agriculture industry, according to recent reports. Nearly 16% of Alabama’s population, over 768,000 people, are experiencing poverty, according to 2019-2023 ACS data. The Census Bureau defines the poverty line as the minimum income needed for a family or individual to meet basic living expenses, based on nationally set income thresholds that vary by family size and composition but do not change by location. If a household’s total income falls below the threshold, it is considered to be experiencing poverty. Of those, one-third (239,000) are under the age of 18. The rate of child poverty is 22%, 6 percentage points higher than the national rate. The rate for older Alabama residents living in poverty also exceeds the national rate. In Alabama, of those who are 65 years and older, 15% live in poverty, compared with the national rate of 12%.
Major racial and ethnic groups in Alabama also experience higher rates of poverty compared to poverty nationally. Among white residents, 11% live in poverty compared with 9% nationally. Among Black residents, one quarter live in poverty compared with 21% nationally. Among Latinx residents, one quarter live in poverty compared with 17% nationally, an 8-point variance.
Greene County (81% Black, 18% white, 1% Latinx) has the highest overall poverty rate, at 36%, while Shelby County (74% white, 13% Black, 7% Latinx) has the lowest, at 7%. The poverty rate for those under the age of 18 is highest in Perry County (71% Black, 28% white), at 60%. The majority of people under the age of 18 live in poverty in Perry, Greene, Conecuh, Wilcox, and Lowndes counties. Black residents make up the majority in these counties except for Conecuh. White poverty is highest in Winston County (92% white, 3% Latinx, 1% Black), at 19%.
Income and Employment
Evidence shows that income and employment opportunities vary by race, and this contributes to occupational segregation and significant pay disparities, particularly for Black Alabamians. However, funding choices for education and employment training opportunities ultimately impact residents across the state. Alabama’s median household income ($62,027) is more than $16,000 lower than the national median ($78,538), according to 2019-2023 ACS data. This shortfall is apparent across all racial and ethnic groups. All groups have statewide median incomes below the national median. The Black median income is $42,373, about $11,000 lower than the national median for Black residents. The Latinx median income is $55,791 in Alabama, about $13,000 lower than the $68,890 national median for Latinx residents. Asian residents have the highest median income in Alabama at $85,907 which is about $27,000 lower than the national median for Asian residents.
The variation in median income across counties is also large. Shelby County has the highest overall median income, at $93,543. Limestone, Madison, and St. Clair counties, which are all majority white, have median incomes that exceed the national median income. Greene County has the lowest median income with $31,495. Cullman County (90% white, 5% Latinx, 1% Black) has the highest median income for Black residents, at $73,255, and Shelby County is a close second. Autauga County (72% white, 20% Black, 4% Latinx) has the highest median income among Latinx residents, at $92,728.
The unemployment rate in Alabama is 4.8%, about 0.4 percentage points lower than the national rate of 5.2%, according to 2019-2023 ACS data. Black residents have the highest unemployment rate at 7.9%, which is about 1 percentage point lower than the national rate for Black residents of 8.7%. Latinx residents have the next highest rate, at 4.8%, about 1 percentage point below the national rate. White residents have an unemployment rate of 3.6%, 0.6 percentage points lower than the national rate. Perry County has the highest unemployment rate at 15.8%.
Education in Alabama: Access, Funding and Attainment
Educational attainment in Alabama trails national levels. Statewide, 28% have bachelor’s degrees, 7% lower than the national rate of 35%, according to 2019-2023 ACS data. The rate for students earning high school diplomas in Alabama (88%) is 1 point lower than the national average of 89%. About 31% of white residents have a bachelor’s degree, compared with the national rate for white residents of 39%. Among Black residents, 20% have a bachelor’s degree, which is 5 percentage points lower than the national rate for Black residents. Nearly 20% of Latinx residents have a bachelor’s degree, which is comparable to the national rate for Latinx residents. Asian residents have the highest rate of bachelor’s degree attainment in the state at 56%, 1 percentage point below the national rate for Asian residents.
Per-pupil educational spending is allocated based on a formula enacted by the Alabama State Department of Education.i The average county in Alabama spends $12,201 per pupil; however, spending by counties varies widely, according to data from the 2022 fiscal year. Lowndes County (74% Black, 24% white) spends the most per pupil with $18,564, while Limestone County (74% white, 13% Black, 7% Latinx) spends the least at $7,848.
Students in the K-12 school system receive additional support from state and federal programs. The primary source of funding for school lunches comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National School Lunch Program, with additional resources from state and local dollars. Statewide, 49% of students qualify for free or reduced lunches, about 2 percentage points less than the national rate. In Macon, Lowndes, and Wilcox counties, where a majority of the residents are Black, over 90% of the students qualify.
Alabama and the Criminal Legal System
Wide disparities exist in incarceration rates by population in Alabama. In 2021, 25,000 people were in state prisons and, as of 2019, an additional 16,000 were in state jails.ii A prison is a long-term correctional facility operated by state or federal governments for individuals convicted of serious crimes, typically felonies, and serving sentences longer than one year, while a jail is a short-term facility run by local authorities (counties or cities) for individuals awaiting trial, serving short sentences (usually less than a year), or held for minor offenses. The majority of the state prison population is Black (13,353), while 46% of the prison population is white (11,470). The incarceration rate in Alabama overall is slightly higher than the national rate, at 384 people per 100,000 residents incarcerated. In state prisons, 1,014 Black people per 100,000 residents are incarcerated, which is 1.1 times higher than the national rate. The state prison incarceration rate for white residents is almost double the national average, with 354 per 100,000 white residents incarcerated. The data reports no Latinx people as incarcerated in state prisons in Alabama.
Overall, the state jail incarceration rate is 329 per 100,000, about 1.7 times higher than the national rate of 199 per 100,000. Of those incarcerated in state jails, 54% (8,850) were white, 43% were Black (7,106), and 3% (444) were Latinx. The Black incarceration rate is 540 per 100,000, which is close to the national rate for Black residents. Among white residents, 273 per 100,000 are incarcerated in state jails, which is 1.7 times higher than the national average. The Latinx incarceration rate is 198 per 100,000, which is 1.3 times above the national rate.
Housing and Homelessness
Homeownership
Despite the challenges of income and poverty in Alabama, the rate of owner-occupied residences is higher than the national rate. Owner-occupied homes are those in which the owner of the home also lives in the home. According to 2019-2023 ACS data, the owner-occupied home rate in Alabama is 70%, compared with 65% nationally. Washington County (66% white, 23% Black, 2% Latinx) has the highest rate at 86%. At the low end is Montgomery County (59% Black, 31% white, 5% Latinx), with a 58% owner-occupied rate.
Each of the large racial and ethnic groups in Alabama has a higher owner-occupied rate than their respective national rate. White residents are 5 percentage points above their national average at 78%, Asian residents are 3 percentage points above their national average at 65%, multiracial residents are 8 percentage points above their national average at 63%, Black residents are 8 points above their national average at 52%, and Latinx residents are 6 percentage points above their national average at 57%.
The share of owner-occupied dwellings that are Black households is much higher than the national rate. Black households make up 19% of the owner-occupied residences, which is more than double the 8% national share. Sumter County (71% Black, 25% white, 1% Latinx) has the highest share of Black owner-occupied residences at 76%. The highest share of Latinx owner-occupied homes is 14% in Franklin County (73% white, 20% Latinx, 4% Black). In Jefferson County (48% white, 42% Black, 5% Latinx), the county with the highest population in the state, 64% of residences are owner-occupied while Greene County, which has the highest percentage of Black residents among counties that are 100% rural, has an owner-occupied percentage of 70%.
According to 2019-2023 ACS data, the median home value in Alabama is $221,900, compared to the national median of $337,900. The median home value in all counties in Alabama is lower than the national median. Shelby County has the highest median in the state at $305,800. The lowest is Sumter County at $95,800.
Renting
The median rent in Alabama (including houses and apartments) is $963, which is lower than the national median of $1,348, according to 2019-2023 ACS data. Shelby County has the highest median rent in the state at $1,348, matching the national median. Greene County has the lowest median rent at $429.
In 2018, the most recent data available, over 24,000 people were evicted across the state. The most evictions (5,511) occurred in Jefferson County, the most populous county in the state. Counties with higher populations tend to have more evictions, but Montgomery County stands out because it is second in evictions with 3,042, but sixth in population.
For Alabama residents who do not own homes, the government plays a significant role in supporting housing affordability via various assistance programs, including housing choice vouchers, public housing, and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program. The Housing Choice Voucher program spent about $157 million on nearly 34,000 leases in Alabama in 2024. Formerly known as “Section 8,” the voucher program is administered by local public housing authorities and funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Vouchers help people rent homes in the private market. Tenants typically pay 30% of their income toward rent, and the voucher covers the rest. The LIHTC impacted 629 properties and nearly 33,000 units in Alabama in 2022. Black households make up 61% of the households in LIHTC units and 22% are white. Over 55,000 Alabama residents live in public housing and 60% of public housing residents are people of color, according to November 2024 data.
Homelessness
About 3,300 people in Alabama are experiencing homelessness according to 2023 data. Among Alabamians experiencing homelessness, 54% are Black, 41% are white, and 3% are Latinx.
Federal resources are available to support students experiencing homelessness. Title I is a component of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act amended by Every Student Succeeds Act that provides funding to schools serving a high percentage of families with low incomes. To ensure that youth experiencing homelessness are provided with support through Title I, the McKinney-Vento Act is a federal law designed to address the unique educational challenges faced by students experiencing homelessness and ensure services are provided in schools for the homeless population. In fiscal year 2024, Alabama received nearly $2.1 million in federal funding through Title I and the McKinney-Vento Act program. Nearly 9,400 youth and students were experiencing homelessness in 2020-2021.iii Among this population, 49% are Black, 35% are white, 12% are Latinx, 3% are multiracial, and 1% are Asian. Black students make up 48% of the student and youth homeless population, while Black students make up only 27% of the overall school-age population.
Health Insurance
Among all residents, 9% (467,000) of the population do not have health insurance. The uninsured rate statewide is higher than the 8.6% national rate, according to 2019-2023 ACS data.
Statewide, 26% of Latinx residents do not have health insurance, compared to 11% of Black residents and 8% of white residents. DeKalb County (78% white, 17% Latinx, 1% Black) has the highest overall uninsured rate at 15%.
According to the 2019-2023 ACS data, nearly 1 million Alabama residents, or 20% of the state population, are enrolled in Medicaid. Medicaid is a government-funded health insurance program that provides free or low-cost medical coverage to low-income individuals and families. At the county level, there is wide variation in enrollment rates. Bullock County (71% Black, 21% white, 6% Latinx) leads the state with 42%, while Shelby County only has 10% enrolled.
Access to Food and Cash Assistance
According to 2022 average monthly data, approximately 109,000 Alabama residents participate in the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program. The WIC program is a federally funded nutrition assistance program in the U.S. that provides supplemental nutritious foods, nutrition education, breastfeeding support, and health care referrals to low-income pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding women, as well as infants and children up to age 5 who are at nutritional risk. Jefferson County, the state’s most populous county, has the highest enrollment, with about 13,000 participants.
The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program supported 15,140 recipients in 6,282 cases statewide in November 2024. TANF supported 4,400 people in 1,789 cases in June 2021 and spending amounted to $374,000. The TANF program is a federally funded, state-administered program that provides cash assistance to families experiencing financial crises to help them afford their basic needs. Jefferson County had the most recipients, 3,810, and the most cases with 1,469.
The Low-Income Heating and Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) serves nearly 81,000 households in Alabama, providing essential support for energy bills, including heating and cooling costs. In 2023, the program delivered over $97 million in assistance statewide.
Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, is slightly higher in Alabama than the national rate, with 14% of residents enrolled compared to 12% nationally according to 2019-2023 ACS data. Wilcox County (71% Black, 27% white) has the highest percentage of people enrolled in SNAP, with 36% of its residents receiving SNAP benefits, reflecting its elevated levels of food insecurity. About 14% of residents in Jefferson County, the most populous county in the state, are enrolled in SNAP.
Together, these initiatives highlight the importance of continued investment in Alabama’s safety net programs to meet the needs of vulnerable populations and promote economic growth.
Infrastructure
Alabama has received significant federal funding for infrastructure and development through recent legislative initiatives. For example, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated over $2.3 billion to infrastructure projects across the state, supporting improvements in transportation, energy systems, and public facilities since its passage in 2021. Additionally, the Inflation Reduction Act was passed in 2022, providing nearly $316 million for various initiatives in Alabama, including approximately $162,000 specifically for workforce development programs.
Alabama’s vulnerability to weather-related threats and natural disasters is evident in the high number of disaster declarations and substantial financial assistance provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Since 2002, Alabama has experienced 1,178 federally declared disasters, reflecting the state’s exposure to hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and other severe weather events. Mobile (55% white, 36% Black, 3% Latinx) and Baldwin (81% white, 8% Black, 6% Latinx) counties on the Gulf Coast have the most disaster declarations, with 27 and 25, respectively.
Nearly 148,000 homeowners in Alabama applied for FEMA assistance, receiving a total of $423 million in aid. Renters have also been significantly impacted, with nearly 97,000 applications resulting in $280 million in assistance. Combined, renters and homeowners in Alabama submitted more than 244,000 applications, leading to over $703 million in federal disaster relief between 2002 and 2024. Mobile County has the highest number of applicants by far, 119,000, accounting for nearly half of all applications in the state.
Alabama has benefited from substantial federal funding for infrastructure and disaster relief, addressing both development needs and the challenges posed by its vulnerability to natural disasters. These efforts underscore the importance of federal investments in supporting Alabama’s infrastructure, resilience and recovery.
The Solution
In conclusion, there are several opportunities to improve the quality of life for Alabamians across the board, particularly for people and families of color, who are more likely to be impacted by cuts to the social safety net. As this brief demonstrates, policymakers can and should prioritize the following to vastly improve racial disparities:
Maintain and expand access to programs that help people afford basic needs such as food, medical care and housing. Research demonstrates that economic security programs can help people meet their basic needs and work towards becoming self-sufficient. Because barriers to opportunity — including unequal access to education, transportation, food and employment — remain particularly high in the Deep South, and contribute to a high number of people experiencing poverty. Further investing in economic security programs helps everyone across the Deep South, regardless of race and income, meet their goals and have the opportunity to thrive.