County's growth rate nearing 6%
U.S. Census keeps Madison at 3rd; in-migration is key
Friday, April 15, 2005
MONTGOMERY - In a state where most counties are losing people, Madison County bucked the trend again and solidified its hold as the third largest county in Alabama - growing three times the rate of the rest of the state.
Estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday showed Madison County ranked eighth when measuring population growth by percentage, and ranked third when measuring increased population.
Madison and Limestone counties have "been a high-growth area in the state since the turn of the century," said Annette Watters, manager of the Alabama State Data Center at the University of Alabama.
The county has 293,072 people, up from 276,951 in 2000, growing at 5.8 percent. The latest numbers are from 2004.
Limestone County ranked ninth in population growth at 5.7 percent; It has 69,387 people compared with 65,676 in 2000.
Keeping ahead of some other counties, Madison County kept its third-place ranking among the most populous counties. "Only Mobile and Jefferson counties are bigger," Watters said.
The numbers reflect the overall health of the county, Watters said.
"It says that Madison County is an attractive place to live, because a lot of people have been attracted to live there," she said.
"Madison County has been doing pretty well. I guess it traces back to the robust economy you have up there," said Don Bogie, a professor of demographics at Auburn University-Montgomery.
Madison County has grown not from its birth rate but from more people moving into the county, Watters said. "In high-growth areas like this, it's from in-migration rather than just (more) new babies being born than people die away."
Although Madison County's picture may be rosy, the statewide picture has some holes in it. The state grew only 1.9 percent from 2000 through 2004.
"That is a good bit below the national average of 4.3" percent, Watters said. "Alabama's growth has been in just a few places."
In fact, 43 of Alabama's 67 counties have lost people in the last four years.
Watters said that number may be misleading and described the situation as "stagnant."
"It's not growth but it's not a disaster," Watters said. "It's not as bad as it sounds."
Jefferson County is the state's biggest loser in the last four years with a loss of 3,552 people, half a percent of the county's population. Lamar County, on the eastern Mississippi border, lost the highest percentage of people - 5.8 percent of its population, 929 people in the county of 15,000.
Madison County has done well to add people, Bogie said.
"It's one of those central metro counties that has been doing well in Alabama," Bogie said. "That is not true for Jefferson and Mobile and Anniston and Gadsden. They've had their struggles."
Bogie said the counties losing people suffer from a birth rate that is much closer to the death rate, so they don't replenish people when people leave. Alabama's low growth rate since 2000 fits into a pattern, Bogie said. Since the 1970s, Alabama has alternated between low growth decades and high growth decades.
In Madison County and other North Alabama towns, there is a straight line going up.
"In most cases, it's job creation that's enticing people here," said Dallas Fanning, Huntsville's planning director.
While Madison County grows, Huntsville is not growing as much with it, Fanning said.
"Huntsville is sort of the job creator for North Alabama and people are opting to move farther and farther out," Fanning said.
While Huntsville's suburbs and bedroom communities are mostly within the county, other counties are facing population losses as people move out of Birmingham to Shelby County and out of Mobile to Baldwin County, Bogie said. Because of that, Madison County's population numbers continue to rise while Jefferson County's continue to fall.
But Huntsville isn't the only place growing in the area. Albertville and Fort Payne are growing significantly, Watters said. Too, those areas may be undercounted because Hispanics are generally underrepresented in census numbers.
Albertville's mayor, Carl Pruett, said the city has set up a committee to try to find the city's true population.
"The total population is bigger than what the numbers show," Pruett said.
Marshall County grew 3.1 percent in the last four years, and DeKalb County grew 3.9 percent.
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