Alabama is growing around the edges.
New population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau suggest the state added around 13,600 people between 2019 and 2020 - and much of that growth can be found on the northern and southern extremes of the state.
No county grew faster from 2019 to 2020 than Limestone, part of the Huntsville Metro area in north Alabama. It grew by 3.1 percent in just one year, adding more than 3,000 people and bringing its total estimated population over 100,000.
[Can’t see the list? Click here.]
Including Limestone, each of the top three fastest growing counties in Alabama are along the northern or southern edges of the state.
Baldwin County, home to Alabama’s beaches, grew by 2.6 percent, the second fastest rate in the state. It added more than 5,700 people, and passed Montgomery in population, moving into the list of Alabama’s top four most populous counties.
No other county in Alabama grew by two percent, but Madison County, home of Huntsville, was close. It grew by 1.9 percent, or more than 6,900 people.
Shelby County, a suburban county in the Birmingham Metro area, grew by 1.5 percent from 2019 to 2020, the fourth fastest rate in Alabama. It was one of two counties in the Birmingham Metro area to make the top 10 - St. Clair County, just to Birmingham’s northeast, was No. 6, with a growth rate of 1.1 percent.
Lee County, home to Auburn, has been near the top of the list of the state’s fastest growing counties for much of the past decade, but has seen its growth slow slightly. It grew by 1.1 percent in 2020, and just 0.5 percent in 2019, after topping 3 percent annual growth earlier in the decade.
These population numbers are not the official counts from the 2020 decennial Census. The estimates are from the Bureau’s Vintage 2020 Population Estimates program, and are used as a baseline to compare against the actual count to gauge the accuracy of estimates. Official head counts from the 2020 Census are set to be released in September.
According to the new estimates, most of Alabama’s counties are losing people - including many in the state’s Black Belt, one of the poorest regions in the country.
[Can’t see the chart? Click here.]
No county lost population at a faster rate than Dallas, home to Selma in the Black Belt. It lost nearly 8,000 people from 2010 to 2020, according to the latest estimates, including more than 1,000 in the last year alone. That was a decline of 2.9 percent in Dallas in just one year, after a decade of continual population loss.
Perry County, Dallas’ neighbor to the northwest, was just behind, losing 2.8 percent of its population from 2019 to 2020, though Perry was much smaller to begin with. It now has an estimated population of 8,700 people.
[Can’t see the map? Click here.]
Do you have an idea for a data story about Alabama? Email Ramsey Archibald at rarchibald@al.com, and follow him on Twitter @RamseyArchibald. Read more Alabama data stories here.