Estimates recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau show that Alabama’s population has grown by 6 percent since the 2000 Census. With 4.7 million people, Alabama has 1.5 percent of the U.S. population.
Six of our Southeastern neighbors have grown much faster since 2000: Georgia (20 percent), North Carolina (17 percent), Florida (16 percent), South Carolina (14 percent), Tennessee (11 percent) and Arkansas (8 percent). Kentucky’s growth rate is slightly higher than Alabama’s. Mississippi’s and Louisiana’s populations have not increased as much as Alabama’s.
The number of Alabama residents increased by 10 percent between the 1990 and 2000 Census counts, but the 2010 Census will show a much smaller increase over 2000. Population growth comes from two sources: the “natural increase” from births less deaths and the movement of people from one place to another.
The Census Bureau also has tabulated 2008 population figures for local areas, which is a year behind the statewide totals just described. Nevertheless comparing these data to the 2000 Census shows us that Alabama is becoming more urban, although it remains less so than the nation as a whole.
Six of every 10 Alabamians live in a city or town, and 92 percent of the population growth in Alabama from 2000 to 2008 occurred within these municipalities. Birmingham and Mobile declined but Huntsville, Tuscaloosa, Hoover, Dothan and Auburn all showed population growth of more than 10 percent.
Another way of measuring urbanization is to focus on metropolitan counties, which have a central city of 50,000 or more people. According to the census data, 71 percent of Alabamians live in metropolitan counties, compared to 84 percent nationally, and 90 percent of Alabama’s population growth from 2000 to 2008 occurred in these counties. Much of the increase came in suburban municipalities like Pelham, Prattville and Madison.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Jim Williams is executive director for the nonprofit, nonpartisan Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama.
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