The Towns In Alabama Where Retirees Are Moving To

Alabama counted 958,894 Medicare enrollees aged 65 and over in 2025, up 108,151 from 2020. That 12.7% gain trails the national rise of 14.6%, and the growth is uneven inside the state. Tallapoosa County, home of Lake Martin, grew its older enrollment just 9.1%, while Lee and Limestone counties each climbed past 23%. Town by town, the newcomers follow two currents: short moves out of Jefferson County into neighboring counties, and arrivals from Georgia and Florida along the state lines. Both groups land in a state that exempts Social Security benefits and traditional pension payments from Alabama income tax.

Centre

Nearly two in five Centre residents are now 65 or older, up from under a third in the 2016-2020 survey estimates. Statewide, the share runs under one in five. Centre's older population grew by roughly 290 people. In the 2020-2024 survey, 6.8% of respondents had lived in another county or state a year earlier, three times the statewide share of 2.2%.

The Cherokee County seat pulls from both sides of the state line. Federal tax data for 2022-23 shows Floyd County, Georgia, as the largest single source of households moving into the county, ahead of Etowah and DeKalb counties in Alabama. Centre also claims an early typewriter, the pterotype, built by local inventor John Jonathan Pratt. Atrium Health Floyd's Cherokee Medical Center keeps an emergency room open around the clock in town. About 5 miles north, Weiss Lake carries the title Crappie Capital of the World.

Ashville

Ashville, one of St. Clair County's two county seats, draws older newcomers at more than six times the state rate. Some 14.2% of its residents 65 and over moved in within the past year, most of them from elsewhere in Alabama. The group is small. It still added about 70 people, bringing the total to roughly 390.

Jefferson County, next door, was the largest single source of households relocating to St. Clair County, at 38% in federal tax returns for 2022-23. The town was originally named St. Clairsville, and its 1890s-era railroad went bankrupt. The tracks were pulled up and sold for scrap. The St. Clair County Courthouse, completed in 1845, ranks among the oldest operating courthouses in the state. The McCain Memorial Public Library opened in April 2022 and runs an adult book club and weekly exercise classes.

Trussville, Alabama

Along the line between Jefferson and St. Clair counties, Trussville added about 1,350 residents aged 65 and over. The newest five-year estimate puts the group near 4,600. Recent arrivals make up 3.6% of those older residents, well above the 2.2% statewide, and about two-thirds came from other Alabama counties.

Anyone over 55 can join the Trussville Senior Activity Center on Cherokee Drive. Its schedule covers line dancing, balance classes, yoga, and tai chi. A square dance group meets on Tuesdays.

Downtown carries a federal pedigree. The Cahaba Homestead Village Historic District preserves a planned community the Resettlement Administration built from 1936 to 1938, with 244 houses and 43 duplexes. The 45th Dog Daze festival filled the historic East Mall in August 2026.

Lincoln, Alabama

Logan Martin Lake borders Lincoln on the west, in northwest Talladega County. Here, the older population climbed by about 400 since the 2016-2020 survey, reaching roughly 1,300. Just 2.3% arrived within a year, a hair above the state's 2.2%. Even so, most of those few arrivals crossed a state line to get there.

Lincoln's Landing, a 38-acre city park on Travis Drive, is the largest public access site on the lake. Its 2026 calendar lists bass tournaments in June, September, and October, plus a crappie event in November. Among all households that moved into Talladega County in 2022-23, about 21% came from Calhoun County, the largest share from any single county.

The name surprises some newcomers. It honors Revolutionary War hero Benjamin Lincoln, not the president. The town was known as Blue Eye and then Kingsville before its post office adopted the name Lincoln by 1856.

Northport, Alabama

Between the two surveys, the population 65 and over in Northport, a Tuscaloosa County city, rose by about 1,330 to roughly 4,700. Among its recent arrivals that age, out-of-state movers outnumber in-state ones, 121 to 79. Together they equal 4.2% of that group, almost double the statewide figure.

DCH Northport Medical Center on Hospital Drive serves the city directly, and its North Harbor Pavilion runs programs for geriatric patients. The Kentuck Art Center on Main Avenue hosts free Art Nights, First Fridays, and art markets. The town took its name from the north side of the Black Warrior River and also keeps the Umbria Schoolhouse, built in 1830 and moved from Sawyerville in 2006. The building is believed to be the oldest school structure in Alabama.

Columbiana, Alabama

The Shelby County seat gained about 185 residents 65 and over between the two surveys, reaching roughly 810. All of its older newcomers came from other Alabama counties, and they account for 5.7% of residents that age, against 2.2% statewide. Shelby County shows the same pull at a larger scale, since Jefferson County, its largest source, sent it 41% of all arriving households in 2022-23.

Family historians have a resource here. The Shelby County Museum and Archives fills the 1854 courthouse, with more than 800 county record books dating to the early 1800s. Local officials tried to demolish that building in the late 1970s before preservationists saved it. Columbiana is also home to the Harrison Regional Library.

Clanton, Alabama

A peach-shaped water tower on Interstate 65 marks the approach to Clanton, with 500,000 gallons of capacity just outside the city limits. The Chilton County seat now counts about 1,900 people aged 65 and over, roughly 275 more than in the earlier survey. Newcomers account for 5.3% of them, more than twice the state rate.

Shelby County, home to Columbiana, supplied a third of all households that moved into Chilton County in 2022-23, the largest share from any county. UAB St. Vincent's Chilton, the hospital on Lay Dam Road, staffs an emergency room around the clock. A ribbon cutting for a new wing followed in August 2025. Each June, the city throws its Peach Festival, and Lake Mitchell on the Coosa River is about 10 miles east.

LaFayette, Alabama

Roughly four in five of LaFayette's newly arrived older residents came from another state. They add up to 10.9% of the town's older population, nearly five times Alabama's 2.2%. The number of residents 65 and over rose by about 170 people and now makes up nearly a quarter of the town, compared with under one in five statewide.

Troup County, Georgia, supplied 21% of all households relocating to Chambers County in 2022-23, second only to neighboring Lee County. The courthouse square hosts LaFayette Day, an annual fundraiser for the Valley Haven School. A bronze statue of heavyweight champion Joe Louis, born near LaFayette in 1914, has stood near the courthouse since 2010.

For hospital care, EAMC-Lanier, the East Alabama Medical Center in Valley, serves Chambers County but now handles only emergency and outpatient care.

Auburn

Auburn University runs a lifelong learning program whose members are mostly retirees. Auburn's population 65 and over climbed by about 2,260, to roughly 7,800. Its share of recent arrivals, 2.9%, beats the 2.2% statewide mark, with 128 newcomers from other states and 101 from other Alabama counties. More than half of all 2022-23 movers into Lee County came from outside Alabama, against about 46% for Alabama counties overall.

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Auburn counted 602 members in 2025. The city's Harris Center adds free memory screenings, Medicare 101 sessions, and a book club. East Alabama Medical Center runs its main hospital in Opelika, while the Auburn Medical Pavilion near campus houses a freestanding emergency department. On campus, the Old Rotation ranks among the longest-running cotton research experiments in the nation.

Abbeville

Dogwood season brings the Yatta Abba Festival to Abbeville's Court Square each spring. More than a third of the town's residents are 65 or older, nearly double the statewide share. That comes to about 1,000 people, up from roughly 860. Their newcomer share stands at 4.6%, more than double the state's 2.2%.

Nearly all of those newcomers moved within Alabama. In federal tax data, Houston County alone accounted for 44% of all incoming Henry County households, far ahead of Dale and Barbour counties. The Henry County Courthouse is a three-story Neoclassical building ringed by 46 narrow columns. Huggin' Molly's, a 1950s-style restaurant with an old-time soda fountain, is named for a local ghost story. Henry County carries the nickname Cradle of the Wiregrass because nine Alabama counties were later carved from its original territory.

Daleville

Daleville shares its northern edge with Fort Rucker, the Army aviation post that dropped the name Fort Novosel and became Fort Rucker again on July 17, 2025. The southwest Dale County town now has nearly 970 residents 65 and over, about 290 more than in the 2016-2020 survey. Most of its recent older arrivals came from out of state, and they equal 2.6% of the age group, slightly above the 2.2% statewide.

Dale County drew 55% of its 2022-23 movers from outside Alabama, compared with about 46% statewide. Montgomery County in Tennessee appears on that origin list. So do El Paso County in Colorado, Bell County in Texas, and Cumberland County in North Carolina.

Daleville itself dates to 1827, and the town first served as the Dale County Courthouse, the original seat of Dale County. The US Army Aviation Museum on post charges no admission and displays more than 160 aircraft. Civilian visitors need a pass, which requires a photo ID and a background check.

Foley

Every one of Foley's 267 recent older arrivals moved in from another state, according to the latest survey. They make up 3.4% of a population 65 and over that grew by about 2,080, a newcomer rate half again as high as the state's 2.2%. More than two in three households arriving in Baldwin County in 2022-23 came from another state, against fewer than half statewide. Escambia County, Florida, led that out-of-state list.

The Foley Railroad Museum fills the 1909 depot on Laurel Avenue, which was sold for $1 in 1971 and brought back in 1995. Foley's senior center on East Rose Avenue, about 7,000 square feet, has run short of room. In March 2026, the council voted to seek design proposals for a new building. Baldwin Health, formerly known as South Baldwin Regional Medical Center, opened a five-story wing in 2024.

Where Alabama's Older Movers Land

Alabama's senior growth runs below the national pace but concentrates in a short list of places. The in-state current runs out of Jefferson County into Shelby and St. Clair counties, then on into Chilton. Out-of-state arrivals favor Lee, Chambers, and Baldwin counties, where Foley's crowded senior center and a Chambers County hospital that no longer admits inpatients show where capacity is already tight. Around Lake Martin, Tallapoosa County grew its older enrollment just 9.1%, so pressure on its clinics and senior programs builds more slowly than in Baldwin or Lee.