PlainCompare

State Life Score

Alabama

Top-quartile composite Life Score — grade B+, 78th percentile of the national corpus.

58.1
Life Score / 100
B+
Grade (curved)
#11
of 51 states
78%
composite percentile

Data updated August 2026

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

The verdict

Alabama is top-quartile composite Life Score — #11 of 51 (58.1/100, grade B+, 78th percentile). Carried by rent at 98/100; held back most by environment at 0/100.

78th
composite percentile
#11
of 51 peers
86th
cost dimension percentile
10th
wages dimension percentile

Life Score shape · UPPER · BALANCED

Alabama at a glance

Alabama is a UPPER-band BALANCED state: rent leads at 98/100 while environment drags at 0/100 (FLOOR cost · LOW wages). According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, Alabama ranks #11 of 51 states by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #7 of 51 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.

Where Alabama sits among all US states

Composite Life Score vs the 50 states + DC

58 Top 22% higher than 78% of 51 US states

25–30: 1 US states (2%). Below this entry. 30–35: 2 US states (4%). Below this entry. 35–40: 4 US states (8%). Below this entry. 40–45: 6 US states (12%). Below this entry. 45–50: 10 US states (20%). Below this entry. 50–55: 12 US states (24%). Below this entry. 55–60: 10 US states (20%). This entry sits in this band. 60–65: 4 US states (8%). Above this entry. 65–70: 2 US states (4%). Above this entry. This state 25 70 every US state, bucketed by value

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US states. 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

Dimension detail

How Alabama scores, dimension by dimension

Score Breakdown

Cost of Living Wages Rent Safety Schools Childcare Environment

Dimension Scores

Cost of Living 88/100 (20%)
Wages 10/100 (20%)
Rent 98/100 (15%)
Safety 38/100 (15%)
Schools 90/100 (10%)
Childcare 91/100 (10%)
Environment 0/100 (10%)

Read with Alabama

Nearest composite peers and cost poles (UPPER · FLOOR/LOW).

Oklahoma

ABS(composite) peer at 58.5 (Δ 0.4 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade B+ vs this page's UPPER · BALANCED · FLOOR/LOW.

West Virginia

ABS(composite) peer at 58.7 (Δ 0.6 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade A- vs this page's UPPER · BALANCED · FLOOR/LOW.

South Dakota

ABS(composite) peer at 59.4 (Δ 1.3 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade A- vs this page's UPPER · BALANCED · FLOOR/LOW.

Minnesota

ABS(composite) peer at 56.6 (Δ 1.5 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade B+ vs this page's UPPER · BALANCED · FLOOR/LOW.

North Dakota (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 86/100 (Δ 2); cost stamp FLOOR vs this state's FLOOR.

Louisiana (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 92/100 (Δ 4); cost stamp FLOOR vs this state's FLOOR.
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Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Data sourced from official public datasets, current as of 2026. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCompare