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Hartselle Enquirer

Hartselle ranked 5th happiest Alabama city

Hartselle has another top 10 ranking to add to its collection.

Credit Donkey, a blog focusing on financial trends,  has ranked Hartselle the fifth happiest city in Alabama.

The blog looked at places with a population of 5,000 or higher. Using U.S. Census and FBI crime data, each city was assigned a ranking based on the following criteria: the number of restaurants per capita, the odds of being the victim of a violent crime, the average commute, the percentage of residents who leave for work before 5 a.m., median household income, the percentage of divorced people is for men and women and the percentage of income residents spend on housing.

“The city of Hartselle is situated about 35 miles to the southwest of Huntsville, and its 14,000 residents agree that it’s a nice little detour from the big city,” the blog stated about Hartselle. “You’ll notice that housing costs are lower than any of the cities we’ve looked at so far, taking a relatively smaller bite out of workers’ income.”

Here are Hartselle’s statistics:

• Restaurants per capita: 1 per 537 inhabitants

• Odds of being the victim of a violent crime: 1 in 684.8

• Average commute time: 23.2 minutes

• Percentage of residents leaving for work before 5 a.m.: 7%

• Median household income: $52,036

• Percentage of residents who are divorced: 6.7% of males, 14.5% of females

• Percentage of income spent on housing: 17%

The cities ranked in order were:

1. Mountain Brook

2. Glencoe

3. Oxford

4. Madison

5. Hartselle

6. Enterprise

7. Southside

8. Muscle Shoals

9. Fort Payne

10. Muscle Shoals

Other nearby cities that made the top 40 included:

11. Athens

26. Huntsville

33. Decatur

Morgan County

20 under 40: Trey Chowning

Falkville

20 under 40: TJ Holmes

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20 under 40: Spencer Bell

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20 under 40: Shelby Keenum

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20 under 40: Rachel Howard

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20 under 40: Mary Virgina Halbrooks

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20 under 40: Maggie McKelvey

Decatur

20 under 40: Maegan Jones

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20 under 40: Lindsey Tapscott

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‘He lets us have sex’: More details emerge on Hartselle man accused of child exploitation 

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Hartselle church creates Easter-themed escape rooms 

Danville

Family tradition: State livestock show legacy spans generations

Editor's picks

Baseball for Beau: More than $8k raised for scholarship named after Hartselle child  

Falkville

20 under 40: Lela Weeks

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20 under 40: Kalleigh Thomas

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20 under 40: Jaime Hatcher

Hartselle

Veteran Hartselle firefighter charged with possessing child porn

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Cerrowire expansion named finalist in Business Alabama Awards  

At a Glance

Work begins on repairing two bridges over I-65 in Morgan County in coming weeks

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Tickets for Morgan County Sports Hall of Fame banquet available

Falkville

Morgan County volunteers celebrated at annual fire department banquet 

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Man jailed for stealing car from jail after earlier release 

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Police: Hartselle man encouraged children to have sex inside his apartment

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20 under 40: Chris Rigoni

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