Huntsville continues to pull away from Alabama’s other large cities, gaining thousands of new residents each year.
The state’s largest city added 3,534 people, or nearly 10 per day, from 2022 to 2023, according to new U.S. Census Bureau estimates released today.
No city in Alabama added more people in one year. Huntsville is now home to 225,564 people.
Of Alabama’s four major cities, Huntsville is the only one that’s growing.
Birmingham, home to 196,644 people, saw a slight population decline with the loss of 246 residents in the new estimates.
Montgomery, home to the state capitol, lost more than 1,650 residents. The third-largest city, it’s now home to 195,287 people.
The census data shows that Mobile shrank by 695 people from 2022-2023. But, last summer, shortly after the census survey period ended, the city annexed 19,789 people. The addition will make Mobile the second largest city in Alabama at the next federal estimate, with about 205,000 residents.
The latest census numbers once again show pockets of rapid growth at the beach and in the state’s college towns, with population decline concentrated around parts of the Birmingham metro and the Black Belt.
In terms of percentage, the fastest-growing city was also in the Huntsville metro area. From July 1, 2022 to July 1, 2023, Athens grew faster than any other Alabama city with at least 10,000 residents.
The city in Limestone County is now home to nearly 31,000 and grew by nearly 8% in one year. That’s a continuing trend as Huntsville growth spills west.
Foley was just behind Athens. Now home to almost 25,000 people on the coast in Baldwin County, Foley was the second-fastest growing city from 2022-2023. Foley added more than 1,000 in a single year to jump almost 5%.
Nearby Fairhope was the third fastest. In fact, half of Alabama’s 10 fastest-growing cities are in Baldwin County.
Tuscaloosa, home to the University of Alabama, added just more than 760 residents from 2022-2023. Tuscaloosa is the fifth largest city in Alabama and now home to more than 111,000 people.
Auburn, home to Auburn University in Lee County, added more than 1,600 residents. Now home to more than 82,000 people, the city is the seventh largest in Alabama.
In Alabama, there are 66 cities with more than 10,000 residents. Of those, 46 are growing and 21 are shrinking.
In the Birmingham metro, a few cities in Shelby and St. Clair counties saw some growth, but cities across Jefferson County continued seeing population decline.
In fact, eight of the 21 Alabama cities that saw population decline are located in Jefferson County.
But the fastest-shrinking city in Alabama is Selma, the iconic civil rights town in the Black Belt. Selma lost 341 residents from 2022-2023, bringing its population to 16,666.
Here’s how each Alabama city ranked in the latest census data:
![“There are incredibly talented students in Birmingham City Schools, and the only thing we need to do as a bar association is encourage each of [them] to dream and to dream big. “](https://nnpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/cropped-APPLOGO-2-1-32x32-1.jpg)
