The 20 best towns to raise a family in Alabama, according to Niche

Hoover High School
Hoover High School

HOOVER, Ala. — Niche.com, a site that seeks to “make choosing a neighborhood, college, or K-12 school a more transparent process” by “providing reviews and insight from everyday experts,” on Tuesday released its annual list of the best towns (pop. under 100k) to raise a family in Alabama.

Niche compiled the ranking by weighing each town’s crime and safety (20 percent), education (20 percent), access to libraries (10 percent), community (10 percent), housing (10 percent), percentage of residents between 18-44 (10 percent), percentage of residents under 9 years of age (10 percent), access to day cares (10 percent), and access to grocery stores (10 percent).

Here are the top 20:

1. Hoover
2. Oneonta
3. Auburn
4. Greenville
5. Muscle Shoals
6. Athens
7. Enterprise
8. Brewton
9. Cullman
10. Childersburg
11. Oxford
12. Hamilton
13. Arab
14. Daleville
15. Florence
16. Russellville
17. Foley
18. Gulf Shores
19. Jasper
20. Jacksonville

Alabama’s number one, Hoover, is also ranked #24 on Niche’s national list.

How does your hometown stack up? Check out the whole list on Niche’s website.