Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 94% of U.S. communities, with hurricanes at the top. Overall it grades A−, 30th of 187 graded towns in Alabama. Residents are healthier than 81% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates and the median household earns $87K. Only 16 of Alabama’s 186 towns score higher on safety. Daphne is home to United States Sports University. Only 4 of the 187 Alabama towns we compare have a higher January low than Daphne.
Where Daphne beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
Its founding year, 1763, comes before those of 99% of the Alabama towns we grade with a known year.
Census counts: 549 in 1890, 27,462 in 2020. The archive holds 18 old photos and papers going back to 1835 and 7 maps from 1921 on.
9 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Alabama), ordered by how far Daphne is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Daphne. Close and well known come first.
Big draw9 mi MuseumUSS Alabama
9 mi MuseumUSS Drum
9 mi MuseumBattleship Memorial Park
29 mi MuseumFort Morgan
39 mi MuseumNational Naval Aviation Museum
11 mi Stadium & arenaMobile Civic CenterUSS 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 · Fort Morgan: Altairisfar, Public domain · National Naval Aviation Museum: Ebyabe, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Mobile Civic Center: Infrogmation of New Orleans, CC BY-SA 3.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Daphne, 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 Daphne.
Daphne fares better on crime within Alabama than nationally and has milder winter nights than nearly all U.S. towns, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Alabama (mostly hurricanes).
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 97% of Alabama towns, with expected losses of about $872 per resident a year; that rating is what its D− for hazard risk is built on. 75 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 12 properties have flooded more than once.
Since 1979, 75 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Daphne. Only 6 of the 187 Alabama towns we compare have a higher FEMA risk score than Daphne.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Its public schools are run by the Baldwin County school district. Three of its 7 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The largest public high school is Daphne High School, with 1,639 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daphne East Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–6 | Grades PK–6 | 947 | A |
| Daphne High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,639 | B+ |
| W J Carroll Intermediate SchoolTop results in townGrades 4–6 | Grades 4–6 | 414 | A |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within AL on state tests and graduation
6.3 miles of trail in 10 parks and preserves. The biggest park or preserve is Village Point Park Preserve, at 78 acres.
| Daphne | Alabama towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 0.4% | 1.2% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.3 miles per square mile | 0.1 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Village Point Park Preserve | 0.7 mi | 78 |
| 2. W.O. Lott Park | 0.5 mi | 9 |
| 3. Daphne Sports Complex | — | 56 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its widest gap with Alabama is food insecurity: 10.8% of its 21,271 adults worry about having enough food, against 19.2% statewide.
11% of adults report frequent physical distress in Daphne, where Alabama’s towns sit at 15% and U.S. towns at 14%. 16% of Daphne adults say their health is fair or poor. Daphne beats the Alabama average on 20 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 1.
| Daphne | Alabama towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 11% | 15% | 14% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 18% | 17% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 11% | 16% | 14% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 24% | 19% |
| What stands out | Daphne | AL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 10.8% | 19.2% |
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 8.7% | 15.4% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 9.3% | 8.2% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The median property tax bill is $1,314, against $788 across Alabama, another input to its cost-of-living grade.
The typical Daphne home is worth about $329,000, about the same as a year ago, 38% above the Alabama typical home. At $1,388 a month, Daphne’s median rent is above both the Alabama town median ($940 a month) and the median of U.S. towns ($1,185 a month).
| Daphne | Alabama towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,388 a month | $940 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 72% | 69% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
At 11.4 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports less crime than 93% of Alabama’s graded towns. Reported crimes fell from 368 to 267 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
The violent crime rate in Daphne is 0.6 per 1,000 residents.
| Daphne | Alabama towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.6 per 1,000 residents | 2.9 | 1.6 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 7.9 per 1,000 residents | 17 | 9.9 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
January nights average 41.8°, milder than in 95% of U.S. towns; July afternoons average 90.3°.
Daphne has warm winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. Daphne’s July high is 90°F. Snow is almost unheard of.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Daphne has about as many jobs (11,362) as working residents, but only 1,673 people both live and work here. Jobs based here grew from 8,279 in 2013 to 11,362.
Most working residents leave Daphne for work: only 14% work in town. 7.2% of residents live below the poverty line in Daphne. Since 2013, Daphne has added 3,083 jobs, to 11,362 in 2023.
| Daphne | Alabama towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 7.2% | 16% | 9.6% |
| Work from home | 15% | 6.7% | 11% |
| Median household income | $87,000 | $62,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 14% | 9.8% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
2 within 15 miles of the center of Daphne
About 5 of every 100 Daphne residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Alabama.
21,570 counted in 2010 and 27,462 in 2020; an estimated 31,396 in 2025.
Growth hasn’t slowed: 14% since 2020, after 27.3% in the decade before.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts · Census Bureau estimate, July 1, 2025
9 places in Daphne on the National Register of Historic Places.
9 notable people were born in Daphne.
City in Alabama, United States
Daphne () is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States, on the eastern shoreline of Mobile Bay. The city is located along I-10, 11 miles east of Mobile and 170 miles southwest of the state capital of Montgomery. The 2020 United States census lists its population as 27,462, making Daphne the most populous city in Baldwin County. It is a principal city of the Daphne-Fairhope-Foley metropolitan area, which includes all of Baldwin County. The inhabited history of what is now called Daphne dates at least to the Paleo-Indian period and Native American tribes around 9000 BC. Modern-day Daphne is a thriving suburb of nearby Mobile. Daphne has adopted the nickname ″The Jubilee City″ in recogn…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
2 towns share a border with Daphne.
| Town | AL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daphne | #30 | A− | B− | B+ | B+ | A− |
| Spanish Fort | #41 | B+ | B− | B | B+ | A |
| Fairhope | #59 | B− | C | B− | B+ | A− |
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. Daphne grades A− overall, better than 76% of U.S. towns and #30 of 187 in Alabama. It grades A− for health, B+ for safety and B+ for schools. Hazard risk is its weak spot, with a D−.
That is 4.2 years of the area's median household income ($78,775 across the Daphne-Fairhope-Foley, AL metro area). Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B−.
9 notable people were born here, including Joseph Lawson Howze and Pat White.
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