Mount OliveAL
A town of 3,567, settled in 1937.
Is Mount Olive a good place to live?
Mount Olive gives you more for your money than most places: homes are within reach, about $265K for a typical one, or 3.7 years of the Birmingham metro’s $71K median household income. It grades B overall, 47th among Alabama's 187 graded towns. Most errands need a car: it is less walkable than 85% of U.S. towns. 88% of households own their home in Mount Olive, above both the Alabama town median (69%) and the median of U.S. towns (73%).
What makes Mount Olive stand out
Where Mount Olive beats most towns.
99% of working residents leave Mount Olive for work
Where Mount Olive’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Mount Olive grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Alabama), ordered by how far Mount Olive is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Legion Field and 18 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Mount Olive. Close and well known come first.
11 mi Stadium & arenaLegion Field
11 mi Stadium & arenaProtective Stadium
11 mi MuseumSloss Furnaces23 mi LakeLewis Smith Lake
11 mi Stadium & arenaLegacy Arena
11 mi Stadium & arenaBirmingham–Jefferson Convention ComplexPhoto credits
Legion Field: USGS, Public domain · Protective Stadium: Unknown, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Sloss Furnaces: DXR, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Legacy Arena: AuburnShuffle, CC0 · Birmingham–Jefferson Convention Complex: Chris Pruitt, CC BY-SA 3.0
Moving to Mount Olive: who provides what
Mount Olive is unincorporated, so Jefferson County and regional agencies provide most services.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Mount Olive.
Mount Olive looks healthier within Alabama than nationally and sends most of its workers to Birmingham and beyond, but it has property taxes 1.5 times the Alabama norm.
About one in three of Mount Olive’s working residents commute to Birmingham
Mount Olive has 193 jobs for its 1,895 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out.
Most working residents leave Mount Olive for work: only 1% work in town. Jobs based in Mount Olive fell to 193 in 2023, 77 fewer than in 2013. 14% of Mount Olive workers work from home.
| Mount Olive | Alabama towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 14% | 6.7% | 11% |
| Working residents who work in town | 1.1% | 10% | 8% |
| Median household income | $82,000 | $62,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 12% | 16% | 9.6% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
On state tests, Mount Olive’s schools trail 69% of Alabama districts
Its public schools are run by the Jefferson County school district. Its one school is below.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mount Olive Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 286 | A− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within AL on state tests and graduation
High risk in Mount Olive, with inland flooding at the top
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 78% of U.S. communities.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
In Mount Olive, expect mild winters and hot summers
Mount Olive has mild winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. Mount Olive’s July high is 91°F.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Residents of Mount Olive are healthier than 59% of U.S. towns
Within Alabama it is healthier than 80% of the 187 graded towns: much of Alabama scores lower on these measures.
Mount Olive beats the Alabama average on 14 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 2. 33% of adults sleep under 7 hours in Mount Olive.
| Mount Olive | Alabama towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 33% | 40% | 36% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 33% | 39% | 35% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 17% | 14% | 16% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 26% | 24% | 23% |
| What stands out | Mount Olive | AL |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing a utility shut-off | 6.3% | 9.6% |
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 9.4% | 13.9% |
| More binge drinkers | 16.8% | 14.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Mount Olive’s grade for cost of living is an A
The median property tax bill is $1,216, against $788 across Alabama, another input to its cost-of-living grade.
The typical Mount Olive home is worth about $265,000, up 2.6% in a year, 11% above the Alabama typical home.
Typical home value
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
An age mix much like Alabama’s
No broad age group is more than 4 points off the Alabama average. 24% of adults 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or more, vs 28% across Alabama.
| Mount Olive | Alabama towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 24% | 23% | 22% |
| Aged 65 or older | 19% | 18% | 18% |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 24% | 23% | 29% |
Ages · share of residents
Education · adults 25 and older
Women and men · all residents
52% women, 48% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±7.4 points. Across Alabama, 51.4% of residents are women.
| Mount Olive | AL | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 13% | 11.8% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 11.4% | 10.4% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 7% | 9.5% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 14.4% | 12.9% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 12.1% | 12.4% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 9% | 12.2% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 14.1% | 13% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 9.2% | 10.7% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 9.9% | 7.1% | 7% |
| No diploma | 9.9% | 11.4% | 10.4% |
| High school | 40.4% | 30.3% | 26% |
| Some college | 21.5% | 20.8% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 3.9% | 9.1% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 17.2% | 17.3% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 7.1% | 11.1% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 3,600, single groups can be off by several points
Everything we know about Mount Olive
Colleges nearby
6 within 15 miles of the center of Mount Olive
About 5 of every 100 Mount Olive residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Alabama.
About Mount Olive
Unincorporated community in Alabama, United States
Mount Olive, also spelled Mt. Olive is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson County, Alabama. Its location is in the suburbs of Birmingham. As of the 2010 census, the population of the community is 4,079. Mount Olive is bordered on the south and the east by the city of Gardendale, and in fact, some areas that had previously been in Mount Olive have been annexed into Gardendale over the years. Running along part of the border between Mt. Olive and Gardendale is the major expressway, Interstate 65. Eventually, part of Birmingham's Northern Beltline will cut through northwestern sections of Mt. Olive. Mt. Olive has its own elementary school, and was forme…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 9.2 sq mi
- Elevation
- 607 ft
- ZIP code
- 35117
- Area code
- 205
Mount Olive’s neighbors
2 towns share a border with Mount Olive.
| Town | AL rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount Olive | #47 | B | A | — | C | B |
| Gardendale | #67 | C+ | B | C | C | B+ |
| Brookside | — | — | A+ | C− | C | B− |
Brookside has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Mount Olive reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Mount Olive with a neighbor →
Questions about Mount Olive
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Mount Olive, AL a good place to live?
By most measures, yes. Mount Olive grades B overall, better than 62% of U.S. towns and #47 of 187 in Alabama. It grades B for health and C for schools. Walkability is its weak spot, with a D.
Is Mount Olive, AL expensive?
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.