U.S. Route 98 (State Avenue) passes through the center of the town, leading west 5 miles (8 km) to Foley and east 10 miles (16 km) to Lillian, at the Florida border.

[3] As of the 2020 United States census, there were 1,974 people, 752 households, and 413 families residing in the town.

The school was founded in 1921 and serves the six surrounding parishes of: St. Bartholomew, Elberta, St. Margaret of Scotland, Foley, St. Joseph, Lillian, Our Lady of the Gulf, Gulf Shores, and St. Thomas by the Sea, Orange Beach.

Elberta High School opened to grade nine as of August 2017 and had its first graduating class in 2021.

The land company advertised the area as having rich soil and a climate that allowed year-round farming.

With the immigration taking these farmers through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and other Midwestern states, the early years of the community resembled Midwestern farming communities more than those of the Deep South.

In the 1930s through the 1940s, the town boasted a farmer's hall where dancing and singing were enjoyed, a hotel, and a movie theatre, as well as a butcher shop, grocery and drug store.

Many of the residents spoke German, and St. Mark's Lutheran Church offered German-language services until 1976.

[citation needed] To support the town's volunteer fire department, the Elberta German Sausage Festival was started in the mid-1970s.