Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 8,555, settled in 1868.
Bay Minette gives you more for your money than most places: a typical home costs about $207K, 2.6 years of the Daphne metro’s $79K median household income. It grades C− overall, ranked 121st of 187 in Alabama. The low prices come with trade-offs. FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 92% of U.S. communities, with hurricanes at the top, and the median household income is $45K, and 24% of residents live below the poverty line. 24% of residents live below the poverty line in Bay Minette, above both Alabama’s towns (16%) and U.S. towns (9.6%). Bay Minette is home to Coastal Alabama Community College. Bay Minette's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) trails 89% of U.S. towns.
Where Bay Minette beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
| College | Students |
|---|---|
| Coastal Alabama Community College | 4,830 |
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Alabama), ordered by how far Bay Minette is from typical.
Its grades run from A for cost of living (better than 86% of comparable towns) to D− for hazard risk (better than 5%), so the C− overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 749 in 1910, 8,107 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 2004 and 2 maps from 1941 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Bay Minette, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in Bay Minette.
Bay Minette trades lower home prices for longer drives to work and is healthier than towns with similar incomes, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Alabama (mostly hurricanes).
10 miles of trail in 4 parks and preserves. The biggest park or preserve is Halliday Park, at 20 acres. Bay Minette’s trail density is 0.6 miles per square mile.
| Bay Minette | Alabama towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.6 miles per square mile | 0.1 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 0.4% | 1.2% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Halliday Park | — | 20 |
| 2. Bay Minette Municipal Pool Comple | — | 7 |
| 3. Bay Minette Kids Park | — | 2 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its public schools are run by the Baldwin County school district. Two of its 4 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The largest public high school is Baldwin County High School, with 940 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bay Minette Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–6 | Grades PK–6 | 814 | B |
| Baldwin County High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 940 | C+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within AL on state tests and graduation
Against the 3,831 U.S. towns with household incomes like Bay Minette’s, it is less healthy than 59%, so its D isn’t only a matter of income.
Bay Minette beats the Alabama average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 12.
| Bay Minette | Alabama towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 19% | 14% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 47% | 43% | 35% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 23% | 19% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 33% | 30% | 25% |
| What stands out | Bay Minette | AL |
|---|---|---|
| More adults facing a utility shut-off | 13.7% | 9.6% |
| More adults facing food insecurity | 26.8% | 19.2% |
| More adults without reliable transportation | 13.6% | 9.8% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 92% of Alabama towns, with expected losses of about $536 per resident a year; that rating is what its D− for hazard risk is built on.
Since 1980, 7 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Bay Minette.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Reported crimes fell from 236 to 149 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
The violent crime rate in Bay Minette is 5 per 1,000 residents. Within Alabama, it does better than 42% of towns.
| Bay Minette | Alabama towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 5 per 1,000 residents | 2.9 | 1.6 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 12.3 per 1,000 residents | 17 | 9.9 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Bay Minette has warm winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. July afternoons reach 91°, January nights drop to 40° and snow is almost unheard of.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Most working residents leave Bay Minette for work: only 18% work in town. Since 2013, Bay Minette has lost 822 jobs, to 4,946 in 2023. The top destinations are Mobile (19%), Daphne (5%) and Fairhope (3%).
| Bay Minette | Alabama towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working residents who work in town | 18% | 9.8% | 8% |
| Median household income | $45,000 | $62,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Homes are within reach (about $207K for the typical one, A for cost of living), but half of working residents commute more than 23 miles. At 2.6 years of the Daphne metro’s $79K median household income, the typical home (about $207K) costs less against local pay than in 80% of Alabama towns; that ratio is one input to its A for cost of living.
61% of Bay Minette households own their home. The typical Bay Minette home is worth about $207,000, about the same as a year ago, 13% below the Alabama typical home.
| Bay Minette | Alabama towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 61% | 70% | 73% |
| Median rent | $782 a month | $943 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Bay Minette. Close and well known come first.
Big draw20 mi MuseumUSS Alabama
20 mi MuseumUSS Drum
20 mi MuseumBattleship Memorial Park13 mi Ancient siteOld Mobile Site
21 mi Stadium & arenaMobile Civic Center
20 mi MuseumFort CharlotteUSS Alabama: USN, Public domain · USS Drum: Jean-Pierre Martin, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Battleship Memorial Park: Rennett Stowe from USA, CC BY 2.0 · Mobile Civic Center: Infrogmation of New Orleans, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Fort Charlotte: DXR, CC BY-SA 4.0
1 within 15 miles of the center of Bay Minette
About 6 of every 100 Bay Minette residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Alabama.
8 notable people were born in Bay Minette.
City in and county seat of Baldwin County, Alabama
Bay Minette is a city in and the county seat of Baldwin County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 8,107.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
One town shares a border with Bay Minette.
| Town | AL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bay Minette | #121 | C− | A | C− | B+ | D |
| Stapleton | #42 | B+ | A+ | — | B+ | C− |
Stapleton reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Bay Minette with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Bay Minette grades C− overall, better than 17% of U.S. towns and #121 of 187 in Alabama. It grades D for health, C− for safety and B+ for schools. Hazard risk is its weak spot, with a D−.
Within Alabama, it does better than 42% of towns.
Not for the area. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades A.
8 notable people were born here, including Ellis Hooks and Joe M. Rodgers.
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