Alabama’s major metro areas all grew last year, along with the beaches and the Wiregrass, while the sparsely populated Black Belt continued to lose people.
Related: These 2 counties are home to 1 in 3 new Alabama residents
Forty-one of the state’s 67 counties, or 61%, gained population between July 1, 2023 and July 1, 2024, according to new population estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
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Limestone County, part of the Huntsville Metropolitan Area in north Alabama, was the fastest growing county in the state. It has kept that crown every year since the 2020 Decennial Census.
And Limestone’s growth is accelerating. It grew by 3.6% from July 1, 2023 to July 1, 2024. Not including the 2020 Census, which is an actual count, Limestone’s estimated annual growth rate last year was it’s fastest in more than a decade. It grew faster than any county in the state since Pickens surged by 5% in 2014.
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The recent growth helped push Limestone County into the top 10 in Alabama for total population, passing Calhoun County. Limestone is now home to an estimated 118,942 people.
Baldwin County, home to Alabama’s beaches, ranked second on the fastest growing counties list. It grew by 3%, roughly the same growth rate it has seen for the last three years.
Madison County, home to Huntsville, came in at No. 3. Madison County is just east of Limestone, and is the second largest county in Alabama. It grew by 2.3%, adding roughly 9,500 total people — the highest total population gain in the state. That’s about 26 new people per day.
Lee County, home to Auburn, ranked 4th, with a growth rate of 1.9%, and Autauga County, in the northern part of the Montgomery metro area, rounded out the top 5 at 1.7%.
Across the state, most urban areas grew, including every county in the Birmingham metro area. It’s the first time that’s happened in more than a decade.
Jefferson County, the most populous county in Alabama, stopped its years-long slide in population. It only grew by 0.1%, or about 700 people, but in the three previous years it had lost a combined 10,600 people.
Bibb County, one of those Birmingham metro counties, was tied for 5th at 1.7% growth. And Chilton County, also in the Birmingham area, was 8th at 1.6%.
Alabama also saw growth on its eastern border, with both Cherokee (1.7%, T-5th) and Cleburne (1.6%, T-8th) ranking inside the top 10.
Henry County, in Alabama’s Wiregrass region, rounded out the top 10 at 1.5% growth. Every county in the Wiregrass region grew in 2024.
That wasn’t the case for Alabama’s Black Belt region.
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Nearly every Black Belt county lost people last year. Greene County, already the smallest in the state, saw a 2.4% loss in population — the fastest decline in Alabama. It now has just 7,100 people.
For context, Madison County added 1.3 Greene Counties worth of people in 2024.
Dallas County, home to Selma and long one of the fastest shrinking areas in Alabama, lost 2.1% of its population.
One bright spot within the Black Belt was Hale County, just east of Greene. It gained population — one of the only Black Belt counties to do so — to the tune of 1.2% growth, 13th highest in the state.
Ramsey Archibald is an award winning data reporter and editor at al.com. To read more Alabama data stories, click here. Have an idea for an Alabama data story? Email rarchibald@al.com or follow him on Twitter and Bluesky.
