Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Leeds gives you more for your money than most places: homes are within reach, about $253K for a typical one, or 3.5 years of the Birmingham metro’s $71K median household income. It grades C overall, 87th of 187 graded towns in Alabama. The low prices come with trade-offs. It reports more crime per resident than 81% of U.S. towns, including 33 violent crimes reported to the FBI in 2025. Leeds has 3 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Southern Railroad Depot and Leeds Downtown Historic District. Leeds’ property crime rate is 21.3 per 1,000 residents, where Alabama’s towns sit at 16.9 and U.S. towns at 9.9. The biggest park or preserve is Leeds Sports Complex, at 25 acres.
Where Leeds beats most towns.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Alabama), ordered by how far Leeds is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 250 in 1890, 12,324 in 2020. The archive holds 7 old photos and papers going back to 1880 and 4 maps from 1905 on.
3 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Leeds takes its name from Leeds in West Yorkshire, England, 4,200 miles across the Atlantic.
UKUK editionLeeds, founded in 1877, takes its name from Leeds, a city in West Yorkshire, England.
6 more U.S. towns are named after Leeds:Leeds, ME2,406Leeds, WI743Leeds, UT857Leeds, ND424Leeds, NY242+1 more
Named after: each U.S. town’s Wikipedia article. Grades compare each town with towns in its own country, so they aren’t a head-to-head.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Leeds. Close and well known come first.
16 mi Stadium & arenaLegion Field
14 mi Stadium & arenaProtective Stadium
13 mi MuseumSloss Furnaces
14 mi Stadium & arenaLegacy Arena
29 mi MuseumInternational Motorsports Hall of Fame
14 mi Stadium & arenaBirmingham–Jefferson Convention ComplexLegion Field: USGS, Public domain · Protective Stadium: Unknown, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Sloss Furnaces: DXR, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Legacy Arena: AuburnShuffle, CC0 · International Motorsports Hall of Fame: BWard 1997, CC BY 4.0 · Birmingham–Jefferson Convention Complex: Chris Pruitt, CC BY-SA 3.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Leeds, 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 Leeds.
Leeds trades workers with Birmingham and other neighbors, looks healthier within Alabama than nationally and has seen reported crime fall beyond ordinary swings.
Reported crimes fell from 336 to 302 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
Leeds reports more crime per resident than most U.S. towns we grade: about 81% report less. Within Alabama, it does better than 44% of towns.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Its public schools are run by the Leeds City school district. Two of its 5 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The largest public high school is Leeds High School, with 624 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leeds Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades 2–5 | Grades 2–5 | 678 | B+ |
| Leeds High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 624 | C |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within AL on state tests and graduation
Leeds has mild winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. The July high in Leeds is 91°F.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Leeds has about as many jobs (4,775) as working residents, but only 526 people both live and work here.
Most working residents leave Leeds for work: only 10% work in town. Since 2013, Leeds has added 895 jobs, to 4,775 in 2023. Leeds’ average trip to work is 27 minutes.
| Leeds | Alabama towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 27 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Work from home | 6.5% | 6.7% | 11% |
| Below the poverty line | 13% | 16% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $70,000 | $62,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
| Leeds | Alabama towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.1 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 1.1% | 1.2% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Leeds Sports Complex | 0.6 mi | 25 |
| 2. Leeds Memorial Park | 0.3 mi | 13 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 58% of U.S. communities. Since 1979, 59 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Leeds.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
No broad age group is more than 4 points off the Alabama average. 25% of Leeds residents are under 18. Leeds has grown 3.6% since 2020, to 12,831 residents in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate.
| Leeds | Alabama towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 25% | 23% | 22% |
| Aged 65 or older | 17% | 18% | 18% |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 28% | 23% | 29% |
49% women, 51% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±2 points. Across Alabama, 51.4% of residents are women.
| Leeds | AL | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 12.4% | 11.8% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 13% | 10.4% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 7.5% | 9.5% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 11.4% | 12.9% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 13.6% | 12.4% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 14% | 12.2% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 11.3% | 13% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 11.2% | 10.7% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 5.7% | 7.1% | 7% |
| No diploma | 12.1% | 11.4% | 10.4% |
| High school | 25.9% | 30.3% | 26% |
| Some college | 25.4% | 20.8% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 8.9% | 9.1% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 16.7% | 17.3% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 11% | 11.1% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
The typical Leeds home is worth about $253,000, up 3.4% in a year, 6% above the Alabama typical home.
| Leeds | Alabama towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,058 a month | $940 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 72% | 69% | 73% |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Within Alabama it is healthier than 75% of the 187 graded towns: much of Alabama scores lower on these measures.
Leeds beats the Alabama average on 12 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 0. 37% of adults feel lonely in Leeds.
| Leeds | Alabama towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 37% | 36% | 33% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 35% | 40% | 36% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 40% | 43% | 35% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 15% | 14% |
| What stands out | Leeds | AL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 11.8% | 15.4% |
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 16.4% | 19.2% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
4 within 15 miles of the center of Leeds
About 3 of every 100 Leeds residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Alabama.
8 notable people were born in Leeds.
City in Alabama, United States
Leeds is a tricounty municipality in Jefferson, St. Clair, and Shelby counties in the U.S. state of Alabama; it is an eastern suburb of Birmingham. As of the 2020 census, its population was 12,324. Leeds was founded in 1877, during the final years of the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era. It housed the workers and their families of Lehigh, a Portland cement manufacturing plant. Leeds is nicknamed "The City of Valor" because of three Congressional Medal of Honor recipients from World War II and the Korean War who called Leeds home: Alford McLaughlin, William Lawley and Henry "Red" Erwin.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
4 towns share a border with Leeds.
| Town | AL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leeds | #87 | C | B+ | C− | C+ | B− |
| Birmingham | #164 | D− | B | D− | D | D |
| Irondale | #105 | C− | C+ | C | C | B+ |
| Dunnavant | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Moody | #58 | B− | B | B | B− | B− |
Dunnavant isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Leeds with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Leeds grades C overall, better than 33% of U.S. towns and #87 of 187 in Alabama. It grades B− for health, C− for safety and C+ for schools. Safety is its weak spot, with a C−.
Within Alabama, it does better than 44% 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 B+.
8 notable people were born here, including Charles Barkley and Rebecca Bace.
