Mount OliveAL
The town was settled in 1937 and has 3,567 residents today.
Is Mount Olive a good place to live?
Real strengths, and real weak spots. Its strongest is cost of living: a typical home costs about $265K, 3.7 years of the Birmingham metro’s $71K median household income. It is strong on incomes as well: the median household earns $82K. What holds it back is walkability. Most errands need a car: it is less walkable than 85% of U.S. towns. All told, that adds up to a B overall and a rank of 47th of 187 in Alabama. Nationally, it does better than 62% 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%).
Figures: home values, Zillow · incomes, Census ACS, 2020–24.
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.
1.1% of working residents work locally in Mount Olive. Jobs locally fell by 77 from 2013 to 2023, to 193. The top destinations are Birmingham (35%), Gardendale (7%) and Homewood (6%). Half of commuters travel less than 13 miles.
| 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
The Jefferson County school district runs its public schools. Its one school is below. 286 students attend Mount Olive’s public school.
| 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
FEMA puts three fifths of Mount Olive’s expected hazard losses down to inland flooding, and 17% to tornadoes. Compared with 78% of U.S. communities, expected storm and flood damage locally is higher.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Expect mild winters and hot summers in Mount Olive
Its peak summer temperature stands at 91°F.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Residents of Mount Olive are healthier than three in five U.S. towns
Within Alabama it is healthier than 80% of the 187 graded towns: much of Alabama scores lower on these measures.
The share of adults in Mount Olive who have high blood pressure: 39%. CDC measures, 32 in all: Mount Olive beats Alabama on 14 and trails on 2. Among 187 Alabama towns, just 6 have a lower share of adults who sleep under 7 hours than Mount Olive. In Mount Olive, 33% of adults have obesity, and 17% binge drink.
| 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.
Homes in Mount Olive are typically worth about $265,000, up 2.6% in a year, 11% above the Alabama typical home. A home in Mount Olive typically sold within 51 days of listing. In Mount Olive, the typical sale closed at 98.5% of the list price.
Typical home value
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
A typical Alabama spread of ages in Mount Olive
By age, Mount Olive looks like Alabama: each broad group is within 4 points. Nearly a quarter of adults 25 and older hold at least a bachelor’s degree, against 28% across Alabama. Mount Olive: 24% of residents are under 18.
| 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.