?WhereToHQ

Ranked · Pick an HQ · Alabama

Best cities to put your HQ in Alabama

Cities of 25,000+ residents, scored with the “Pick an HQ” weighting the live tool uses, heaviest on bachelor's degree or higher, avg. weekly wage, corporate income tax, state & local income tax. Scores are relative to this set; open the tool to change the weights and re-rank.

Re-rank for your priorities
Top 10 · computed ranking

  1. 1.Hoover, AL93k residents

    70/100

    bachelor's degree or higher: 62.6% · avg. weekly wage: $1,240/wk · corporate income tax: 6.5%

  2. 2.Auburn, AL81k residents

    70/100

    bachelor's degree or higher: 64.1% · avg. weekly wage: $1,076/wk · corporate income tax: 6.5%

  3. 3.Florence, AL42k residents

    69/100

    bachelor's degree or higher: 34.5% · avg. weekly wage: $933/wk · corporate income tax: 6.5%

  4. 4.Homewood, AL28k residents

    68/100

    bachelor's degree or higher: 70.9% · avg. weekly wage: $1,240/wk · corporate income tax: 6.5%

  5. 5.Tuscaloosa, AL111k residents

    67/100

    bachelor's degree or higher: 39.4% · avg. weekly wage: $1,186/wk · corporate income tax: 6.5%

  6. 6.Vestavia Hills, AL39k residents

    66/100

    bachelor's degree or higher: 65.3% · avg. weekly wage: $1,240/wk · corporate income tax: 6.5%

  7. 7.Madison, AL60k residents

    64/100

    bachelor's degree or higher: 64.5% · avg. weekly wage: $1,528/wk · corporate income tax: 6.5%

  8. 8.Decatur, AL57k residents

    64/100

    bachelor's degree or higher: 22.4% · avg. weekly wage: $1,202/wk · corporate income tax: 6.5%

  9. 9.Gadsden, AL33k residents

    64/100

    bachelor's degree or higher: 15.5% · avg. weekly wage: $922/wk · corporate income tax: 6.5%

  10. 10.Montgomery, AL197k residents

    63/100

    bachelor's degree or higher: 33.8% · avg. weekly wage: $1,226/wk · corporate income tax: 6.5%

Methodology: each city is scored 0–100 by min–max normalizing every weighted facet across this candidate set (direction-aware), identical math to the tool's “Best fit” tab. A different weighting produces a different order, which is the point: this is a starting shortlist, not a verdict.

Questions & answers
Which city is best to put your HQ in Alabama?
Hoover, AL ranks first with a fit score of 70/100, followed by Auburn (70) and Florence (69), using the "Pick an HQ" weighting.
How is this ranking calculated?
Each of the 10 candidate cities (25,000+ residents) is scored 0 to 100 by min-max normalizing the weighted facets, heaviest on bachelor's degree or higher, avg. weekly wage, corporate income tax, state & local income tax, across this set. Change the weights in the live tool and the order changes with them.