Huntsville Passes Birmingham As The Largest City In Alabama

[selmaborntidefan]

Huntsville rockets past Birmingham in 2020 Census, now Alabama’s largest city

Huntsville was much more populous than expected following the release of data from the 2020 Census Thursday. Birmingham, meanwhile, was the opposite.

www.al.com

Didn't see this or know where else to put this but...I still remember the first time I was at least old enough to remember riding through Birmingham, my Dad trying to drive the old Chevelle and Mom and him trying to crane their necks and point and tell about 'the Vulcan," which as an Atlanta Falcons fan of my youth I just assumed was a mispronunciation.

And that day it was the whole "Birmignham is the largest city in Alabama" (this would have been in 1978). They knew I was (even then) into the states, capitals, geography, largest city, etc. I knew this was going to happen eventually, largely because one city is heading one way with the population and one is heading the other.

Anyway, just thought I'd post it here.

 

[DzynKingRTR]

Does this mean all the car tags have to change?

 

[TIDE-HSV]

Does this mean all the car tags have to change?

That's by county and you'd have to take a machine gun to the legislature to accomplish a change...

 

[DzynKingRTR]

That's by county and you'd have to take a machine gun to the legislature to accomplish a change...

I know, hence the blue font. I had heard that Madison County had passed Montgomery County in population 10 years ago.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I know, hence the blue font. I had heard that Madison County had passed Montgomery County in population 10 years ago.

The people who have 1,2 &3 are absurdly attached to them...

 

[Crimson1967]

I think a state law designates 1,2, and 3 county tags. So even if the population of Jefferson County fell to 1, that person gets a 1 on his car tag.

 

[TexasBama]

Well, 47 is a prime number, so there's that

 

[selmaborntidefan]

Does this mean all the car tags have to change?

I had no idea what this meant. But I do now.

thx everyone for the good laugh

 

[92tide]

Well, 47 is a prime number, so there's that

so is 67. and we have the pride of being d.f.l.

 

[4Q Basket Case]

It's a little misleading. That's the City of Birmingham. Which, for evolving reasons, has been bleeding people for decades.

The number doesn't include Homewood, Vestavia, Mountain Brook, Fultondale, Gardendale and a boatload of other burbs that abut the Birmingham city limits, but are separate cities unto themselves. In a lot of cases, it's impossible to tell when you leave one and enter the other. Also doesn't include North Shelby County, which is also essentially a suburb of Birmingham.

The distinction is important because the City of Birmingham has a bit over 200K residents. The metro area is over a million.

 

[UAH]

It's a little misleading. That's the City of Birmingham. Which, for evolving reasons, has been bleeding people for decades.

The number doesn't include Homewood, Vestavia, Mountain Brook, Fultondale, Gardendale and a boatload of other burbs that abut the Birmingham city limits, but are separate cities unto themselves. In a lot of cases, it's impossible to tell when you leave one and enter the other. Also doesn't include North Shelby County, which is also essentially a suburb of Birmingham.

The distinction is important because the City of Birmingham has a bit over 200K residents. The metro area is over a million.

That is true. If one looks at Birmingham-Hoover MSA it is considerably larger than Huntsville-Decatur MSA. One would have to take a much deeper dive into the data to understand the growth rates of all the surrounding communities around Huntsville, Birmingham and Mobile to see the relative growth of all three.

Alabama statistical areas

 

[B1GTide]

It's a little misleading. That's the City of Birmingham. Which, for evolving reasons, has been bleeding people for decades.

The number doesn't include Homewood, Vestavia, Mountain Brook, Fultondale, Gardendale and a boatload of other burbs that abut the Birmingham city limits, but are separate cities unto themselves. In a lot of cases, it's impossible to tell when you leave one and enter the other. Also doesn't include North Shelby County, which is also essentially a suburb of Birmingham.

The distinction is important because the City of Birmingham has a bit over 200K residents. The metro area is over a million.

Maybe, but that is how we calculate city populations. Look at the major metropolitan areas around the country. The suburbs which surround the large cities don't count their population toward the cities.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

That is true. If one looks at Birmingham-Hoover MSA it is considerably larger than Huntsville-Decatur MSA. One would have to take a much deeper dive into the data to understand the growth rates of all the surrounding communities around Huntsville, Birmingham and Mobile to see the relative growth of all three.

Alabama statistical areas

Those SMAs are outdated. Huntsville should include Limestone and Marshall counties as well as Morgan. When a large portion of the population is migrating to an economic center for work or obtaining their economic support from that center, that's an obvious statistical area. When you adjust for that, the Huntsville area is much closer to Birmingham/Hoover...

 

[TexasBama]

Those SMAs are outdated. Huntsville should include Limestone and Marshall counties as well as Morgan. When a large portion of the population is migrating to an economic center for work or obtaining their economic support from that center, that's an obvious statistical area. When you adjust for that, the Huntsville area is much closer to Birmingham/Hoover...

There were a lot of people in Decatur that worked at Marshall SFC when I was a kid 45+ years ago. Decatur was almost a suburb of Huntsville then.
I think Huntsville and Athens is now contiguous.

 

[92tide]

Those SMAs are outdated. Huntsville should include Limestone and Marshall counties as well as Morgan. When a large portion of the population is migrating to an economic center for work or obtaining their economic support from that center, that's an obvious statistical area. When you adjust for that, the Huntsville area is much closer to Birmingham/Hoover...

in city/regional planner lingo, we referred to that as part of a commute/labor shed

 

[UAH]

Those SMAs are outdated. Huntsville should include Limestone and Marshall counties as well as Morgan. When a large portion of the population is migrating to an economic center for work or obtaining their economic support from that center, that's an obvious statistical area. When you adjust for that, the Huntsville area is much closer to Birmingham/Hoover...

I absolutely agree with that particularly living here near the edge of Limestone County and seeing the tremendous growth in the areas to the west and north of Huntsville. Auto manufacturing has been a major growth engine in Alabama in general but Huntsville has the military, space and technology drivers that the others SMA's lack.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I absolutely agree with that particularly living here near the edge of Limestone County and seeing the tremendous growth in the areas to the west and north of Huntsville. Auto manufacturing has been a major growth engine in Alabama in general but Huntsville has the military, space and technology drivers that the others SMA's lack.

And now - autos here, to be clear...

 

[UAH]

in city/regional planner lingo, we referred to that as part of a commute/labor shed

In the old days we looked at SMSA's from the department of labor. One thing that is interesting here is intersection of the Huntsville labor market that stretches into middle Tennessee and intersects with the Nashville labor market that extends south along the I-65 corridor practically to the Alabama state line. Automotive and construction suppliers are located generally along the entire corridor. At some point in the future Huntsville-Nashville will become a megalopolis.

 

[TexasBama]

In the old days we looked at SMSA's from the department of labor. One thing that is interesting here is intersection of the Huntsville labor market that stretches into middle Tennessee and intersects with the Nashville labor market that extends south along the I-65 corridor practically to the Alabama state line. Automotive and construction suppliers are located generally along the entire corridor. At some point in the future Huntsville-Nashville will become a megalopolis.

Megaregions of the United States - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[selmaborntidefan]

It's a little misleading. That's the City of Birmingham. Which, for evolving reasons, has been bleeding people for decades.

The number doesn't include Homewood, Vestavia, Mountain Brook, Fultondale, Gardendale and a boatload of other burbs that abut the Birmingham city limits, but are separate cities unto themselves. In a lot of cases, it's impossible to tell when you leave one and enter the other. Also doesn't include North Shelby County, which is also essentially a suburb of Birmingham.

The distinction is important because the City of Birmingham has a bit over 200K residents. The metro area is over a million.

I get this up to a point but then again if we took the entire DFW metroplex as one, it’d be the 5th largest city in the country. Instead, Dallas is 9th and Ft Worth is 12th.

How many people even think of FW when thinking of the 20 largest cities in the US? (I was stunned when living there to learn that San Jose is larger than San Fran. Of course, put that whole area together and it’s about what DFW is, too.