Guin is a city in Marion County, Alabama. It has 2,381 residents. Guin, Alabama has a quality-of-life score of 12 out of 100 (very low), ranking #13,777 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Alabama it ranks #176 of 319 cities and towns. It ranks best on effective property tax rate (low), pharmacies (high) and time spent in the emergency room (low). It ranks worst on access to exercise opportunities (low), mental health providers (low) and arts, entertainment and recreation (low).
12Very low
Quality-of-life score
#13,777 of 15,651 cities and towns
Alabama
#176 of 319 in AL
Population
2,381 (2020-2024)
Land area
15 mi²
Density
159.0 /mi²
FIPS code
0132224
Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 74 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.
Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.
Safety39#9,594/15,637
Economy3#15,146/15,631
Housing54#6,885/14,977
Health13#13,577/15,609
Healthcare16#13,098/15,650
Environment55#6,889/15,453
Education24#11,884/15,649
Infrastructure19#12,683/15,650
Community12#13,761/15,651
Leisure & amenities25#11,687/15,651
Strengths · Weaknesses
Indicators where Guin, Alabama ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Marion County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.
How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.
Cities and towns like Guin, Alabama five years ago that improved
The places whose measures looked most like those of Guin, Alabama in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.
Who lives here
Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).
Income
How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.
Homes
Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.
Getting to work
How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.
Local businesses
Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.
Federal contracts performed here
Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Guin is mostly in Marion County.
Over about five years, Guin, Alabama improved on 3 of 13 measures with a comparison and declined on 1. 9 moved within the margin of error and 0 barely changed.
Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing
Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.
Improved3
Household income+109%$24,444 → $51,117
Median household income
$24,444 → $51,1172015-2019 → 2020-2024
+109%Beyond the margin of error (±$17,026)
Standing among cities and towns: 1 → 17 (0 lowest, 100 highest)
More favourable than 99% of cities and towns
Broadband+22 points57.1% → 79.0%
Broadband subscriptions
57.1% → 79.0%2015-2019 → 2020-2024
+22 pointsBeyond the margin of error (±12.9 points)
Standing among cities and towns: 4 → 8 (0 lowest, 100 highest)
More favourable than 93% of cities and towns
Bachelor's++8.4 points10.8% → 19.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher
10.8% → 19.2%2015-2019 → 2020-2024
+8.4 pointsBeyond the margin of error (±8 points)
Standing among cities and towns: 9 → 28 (0 lowest, 100 highest)
More favourable than 85% of cities and towns
Declined1
Rent burden+30 points40.6% → 70.2%
Rent-burdened households
40.6% → 70.2%2015-2019 → 2020-2024
+30 pointsBeyond the margin of error (±27.7 points)
Standing among cities and towns: 72 → 7 (0 lowest, 100 highest)
Less favourable than 97% of cities and towns
All 13 measures
Change of every measure of Guin, Alabama between two periods about five years apart
Measure
Before
After
Change
Reading
Favourable vs peers
Average commute time
24.3 min2015-2019
18.2 min2020-2024
−6.1 min
Within the margin of error
93%
Bachelor's degree or higher
10.8%2015-2019
19.2%2020-2024
+8.4 points
Improved
85%
Broadband subscriptions
57.1%2015-2019
79.0%2020-2024
+22 points
Improved
93%
Child poverty rate
33.3%2015-2019
28.8%2020-2024
−4.5 points
Within the margin of error
67%
Effective property tax rate
0.28%2015-2019
0.28%2020-2024
−0 points
Within the margin of error
17%
High school diploma or higher
86.0%2015-2019
88.6%2020-2024
+2.6 points
Within the margin of error
64%
Home price to income ratio
3.8×2015-2019
2.2×2020-2024
−1.6×
Within the margin of error
99%
Income inequality (Gini index)
0.4862015-2019
0.4812020-2024
−0.005
Within the margin of error
55%
Median household income
$24,4442015-2019
$51,1172020-2024
+109%
Improved
99%
Poverty rate
30.2%2015-2019
18.3%2020-2024
−12 points
Within the margin of error
95%
Rent as share of income
27.7%2015-2019
34.0%2020-2024
+6.3 points
Within the margin of error
17%
Rent-burdened households
40.6%2015-2019
70.2%2020-2024
+30 points
Declined
3%
Uninsured residents (under 65)
16.8%2015-2019
8.4%2020-2024
−8.4 points
Within the margin of error
94%
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.
Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.
For comparison, Guin, Alabama itself moved +3.8 points in standing on average over the same 10 measures (standings of all places average about zero).
How the ranking works
Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.
Guin, Alabama is represented in the 119th Congress by these members.
The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Marion County, the county holding most of Guin's residents.
Marion County has 546 employer establishments, 186 for every 10,000 residents (0.75× the US rate of 248; 0.90× Alabama's), with 7,761 paid employees at an average annual pay of $42,740. The Census Bureau also counts 1,967 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.
Establishments
546
1,967 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents
186
US 248 · Alabama 207
Paid employees
7,761
Average annual pay
$42,740
US $68,342
Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Marion County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation
County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)
Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 29,277 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.
No federal contract obligations recorded here in FY2026.
