What is Florence-Muscle Shoals's Life Score?

Florence-Muscle Shoals scores 58.2/100 (grade B+), rank #72 of 387. Signature cost at the 98th percentile; stamps UPPER · COST-LED · cost FLOOR · wages LOW.

What pulls Florence-Muscle Shoals up or down?

Strongest: cost of living (98/100). Weakest: environment (2/100). Profile mark COST-LED; dimension gap 97.

How current is this data?

Federal releases current as of August 2026 (BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA). Cadence varies by series; see methodology.

Metro Life Score

Florence-Muscle Shoals, AL

Top-quartile composite Life Score — grade B+, 81st percentile of the national corpus.

Compiled by PlainCompare

58.2
Life Score / 100: B+
Grade (curved): #72
of 387 metros: 81%
composite percentile

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Data updated August 2026

Verify: BEA · BLS · HUD · FBI · NCES · EPA · Census · Report a data issue · Data changelog

The verdict

Florence-Muscle Shoals is top-quartile composite Life Score — #72 of 387 (58.2/100, grade B+, 81st percentile). Carried by cost of living at 98/100; held back most by environment at 2/100.

81st
composite percentile: #72
of 387 peers: 98th
cost dimension percentile: 4th
wages dimension percentile

Life Score shape · UPPER · COST-LED · signature cost

Florence-Muscle Shoals: affordability leads the Life Score story

Florence-Muscle Shoals is a UPPER-band metro whose cost dimension sits at the 98th percentile of 387 US metros (FLOOR) while composite is #72 (58.2/100, grade B+). Cost of Living at 98/100 carries the upside; Environment at 2/100 is the residual drag. According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, Florence-Muscle Shoals, AL ranks #72 of 387 metros by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #8 of 387 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.

BEA RPP 84.8 (rent-RPP 47.7). BLS median salary $54,891, 48,280 jobs (Retail Salespersons, Cashiers, Registered Nurses). HUD 2BR FMR $1,000/mo (studio $698).

FBI UCR (AL): 376 violent, 1622 property/100K. NCES: 17.2:1 ratio, 1.2% charter. DOL infant childcare $6,896/yr. EPA: 16 Superfund sites (AL).

Where Florence-Muscle Shoals sits among all US metros

Composite Life Score vs the national field

58 Top 19% higher than 81% of 387 US metros

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US metros. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source PlainCompare composite of BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA data · August 2026

How the 58.2 is built

Florence-Muscle Shoals's Life Score, decomposed

Cost of Living 19.6 (34%) Wages 0.7 (1%) Rent 13.9 (24%) Safety 6.5 (11%) Schools 8.1 (14%) Childcare 9.1 (16%) Environment 0.2 (0%)

Dimension detail

How Florence-Muscle Shoals scores, dimension by dimension

Score Breakdown

Dimension Scores

Cost of Living 98/100 (20%) Top 10%

Wages 4/100 (20%) Bottom 10%

Rent 93/100 (15%) Top 10%

Safety 43/100 (15%) Average

Schools 81/100 (10%) Above average

Childcare 91/100 (10%) Top 10%

Environment 2/100 (10%) Bottom 10%

Key Data Points

84.8

Cost Index (RPP)

$54,891

Avg Median Salary

$1,000

2BR Fair Market Rent

376

Violent Crime/100K (AL)

17.2:1

Student-Teacher Ratio

$6,896

Infant Childcare/yr (AL)

Superfund Sites (AL)

48,280

Total Employment

Geography used: crime, schools, childcare, and environment cards above are AL state-level when metro-specific feeds are unavailable, see the scope key at the top of this page.

Compare Florence-Muscle Shoals With...

Florence-Muscle Shoals vs Decatur Compare → Florence-Muscle Shoals vs Mobile Compare → Florence-Muscle Shoals vs Dothan Compare → Florence-Muscle Shoals vs Paducah Compare → Florence-Muscle Shoals vs Pocatello Compare → Florence-Muscle Shoals vs Wildwood Compare →

Ranking Context

Florence-Muscle Shoals outranks 81% of U.S. metros.

Rank	Metro	Score	Grade
#69	Lawrence, KS	58.4	B+
#70	New Orleans-Metairie, LA	58.5	B+
#71	Fargo, ND-MN	58.5	A-
#72	Florence-Muscle Shoals, AL	58.2	B+
#73	Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC	58.1	B+
#74	Gadsden, AL	58.1	B+
#75	Jackson, MS	58.1	B+

Quality vs. Affordability

Florence-Muscle Shoals, AL is top 19% highest-quality nationally and also top 2% most affordable -- a rarer combination among its composite-quality peers, where overall rank and affordability rank usually diverge more than this.

Florence-Muscle Shoals, AL (highlighted) among its 12 nearest composite-Life-Score peers, out of 387 tracked metros nationally. Crosshairs mark this peer neighborhood's own median composite score and cost-of-living score. Cost-of-living score is already inverted so higher = more affordable.

AL Metro Scores

Decatur, AL A 63.4 Mobile, AL A- 59.8 Dothan, AL A- 58.7 Gadsden, AL B+ 58.1 Anniston-Oxford, AL B+ 57.7 Montgomery, AL B+ 55.9

Read with Florence-Muscle Shoals

Nearest composite peers and cost poles for Florence-Muscle Shoals (UPPER · COST-LED · FLOOR/LOW), replacing the fixed Explore/Guides strip.

Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC

ABS(composite) peer at 58.1 (Δ 0.1 vs this metro); lower Life Score · grade B+ vs this page's UPPER · COST-LED · FLOOR/LOW.

Gadsden, AL

ABS(composite) peer at 58.1 (Δ 0.1 vs this metro); lower Life Score · grade B+ vs this page's UPPER · COST-LED · FLOOR/LOW.

Jackson, MS

ABS(composite) peer at 58.1 (Δ 0.1 vs this metro); lower Life Score · grade B+ vs this page's UPPER · COST-LED · FLOOR/LOW.

Lawrence, KS

ABS(composite) peer at 58.4 (Δ 0.2 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade B+ vs this page's UPPER · COST-LED · FLOOR/LOW.

Shreveport-Bossier City, LA (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 98/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp FLOOR vs this metro's FLOOR.

Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 98/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp FLOOR vs this metro's FLOOR.

Florence-Muscle Shoals, AL relocation guide

Stamp-branched guide for UPPER · COST-LED · FLOOR/LOW - how to read federal Life Score inputs before a move.

Using Florence-Muscle Shoals's top-third Life Score

Florence-Muscle Shoals scores 58.2/100 overall, but Cost of Living (98.2) and Environment (1.6) sit 96.6 points apart, so decide which of the two matters more to you before leaning on the total.

Cost of Living is the strongest of Florence-Muscle Shoals's seven dimensions (weighted 20% in the composite); if it is your priority, this is where the metro earns its rank. See all seven dimensions
Environment is the weakest (weighted 10% in the composite); if it is a dealbreaker, weigh it before the ranking does. Rank metros on the composite
Decatur is the nearest comparison this page can offer; put the two side by side on the same seven dimensions. Compare with Decatur

A high composite is a weighted blend; it does not mean every dimension is strong.

Data from BEA, HUD, FBI UCR, BLS OES, NCES, DOL, and EPA. Not affiliated with the U.S. Government.

Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Florence-Muscle Shoals Life Score 58.2/100 · signature cost · retrieved and formatted by PlainCompare

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

All federal data sources used on this page

U.S. Census Bureau ACS - multi-dimension demographic + housing + income aggregates for cross-area comparison. census.gov/programs-surveys/acs
BEA Regional Economic Accounts - GDP, personal income, employment by state and metro. bea.gov/data/regional
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) - wage estimates for comparable-area indexing. bls.gov/oes
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) - crime statistics for safety-score component. fbi.gov/ucr
NCES Common Core of Data - public-school quality indicators by area. nces.ed.gov/ccd
EPA AirNow + Air Quality System (AQS) - air-quality measurements by area. epa.gov/outdoor-air-quality-data
HUD Fair Market Rents (FMR) - county and metro housing-cost indicators. huduser.gov/datasets/fmr