50,067 people (2024 Census estimate, +1.6% since 2020)
561 square miles of land · 89 people per square mile
“Highest” and “lowest” are just order, not grades: a high rank for poverty or hazard losses means more of it. Each figure's source is in its section below.
10 active community water systems list Dale County in the area they serve, reporting 69,139 people served in all (a system that crosses county lines counts its whole population).
| OZARK UTILITIES BOARD groundwater · local government · AL0000441 | 19,965 served |
| FORT RUCKER -AMERICAN WATER ENTERPRISES groundwater · federal · AL0001489 | 16,774 served |
| DALEVILLE, THE WWSB OF THE CITY OF groundwater · local government · AL0000420 | 10,014 served |
| DALE COUNTY WATER AUTHORITY groundwater · local government · AL0000415 | 7,779 served |
| LEVEL PLAINS, TOWN OF groundwater · local government · AL0000436 | 3,819 served |
| MIDLAND CITY WATER DEPARTMENT groundwater · local government · AL0000438 | 3,300 served |
| NEWTON, THE WW AND SB OF THE TOWN OF groundwater · local government · AL0000439 | 2,466 served |
| NAPIER FIELD WATER SYSTEM buys groundwater · local government · AL0000693 | 2,382 served |
Source: U.S. EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), active community systems, . Look up any system's violations and test results with EPA's search using its ID.
About 83 people were held in Dale County's jail, in Vera's latest figure (2021), or 268 per 100,000 residents ages 15–64. In 2016 it was about 81.
Source: Vera Institute of Justice, Incarceration Trends (built from federal Bureau of Justice Statistics jail surveys). Counties without their own jail, or that share one, may show no figure.
3 school districts have their office in Dale County. School taxes are usually the largest part of a property tax bill.
Spent $43 million — $39.9 million to run schools, about $12,213 per student, plus $1.5 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $10.4 million local (mostly property tax), $29.3 million state, $6.9 million federal. Long-term debt: $14.5 million.
Spent $30.5 million — $27.9 million to run schools, about $13,561 per student, plus $1.8 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $7.9 million local (mostly property tax), $17.8 million state, $7 million federal. Long-term debt: $27.4 million.
Spent $15.6 million — $14.2 million to run schools, about $12,314 per student, plus $792,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $3.1 million local (mostly property tax), $10.5 million state, $4 million federal. Long-term debt: $6.8 million.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 Annual Survey of School System Finances. Districts are listed by the county of their main office; some serve neighboring counties too.
Source: County Health Rankings & Roadmaps 2025 (University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute), which gathers federal data (CDC, Census, and others); measures cover different recent years. Blank lines aren't reported for small counties.
Overall risk: Relatively Low compared with other U.S. counties. FEMA estimates natural hazards cost Dale County about $18.5 million a year on average in buildings, crops and lives. Ability to bounce back (community resilience): Very Low; social vulnerability: Very High.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025), expected annual loss. Ratings compare counties nationwide; they're estimates, not predictions.
206 bridges in Dale County: 92 in good condition, 114 fair, and 0 poor (0.0%). “Poor” means a main part — the deck, the beams, or the supports — is rated 4 or lower on the federal 0–9 scale. It doesn't mean unsafe to drive; unsafe bridges are closed.
Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory (2025 submission). Includes state, county and city bridges.
Federal grants paid for $22.2 million of work in Dale County in fiscal 2025, about $449 per resident — to the county, cities, schools, hospitals, nonprofits and others.
Source: USAspending.gov, grants by place of performance, fiscal 2025 (Oct. 2024 to Sept. 2025). Search it by county to see each award.
From Grants.gov: posted grants listing county governments as eligible, soonest deadline first; research-only and overseas programs left out; list updated 2026-10-13, refreshed weekly. 62 are open in all. Cities, towns, school districts and nonprofits have their own lists there.
Registration deadlines, early voting and polling places for Alabama are on the federal site vote.gov, which links to the state's official election office.
The budget, property tax rates, audits, local officials and offices for Dale County come from the county's own records, which we haven't gathered — not gathered, never hidden. See what a full county site looks like, or ask to have Dale County built: brayden.ozark@gmail.com.
More of Alabama: the state government and every county in Alabama.
Nearby counties: Coffee County (22 mi) · Henry County (23 mi) · Houston County (26 mi) · Geneva County (26 mi) · Pike County (32 mi) · Barbour County (33 mi).