Alabama’s economic output grew slightly in 2023, but a handful of the small counties in the state’s poorest region led the way in economic gains.

Perry and Hale counties, both in Alabama’s Black Belt region, each saw double-digit percentage increases to their gross domestic product in fiscal year 2023. GDP is a combined measure of the value of all goods and services produced in an area.

No other counties topped 10% growth in 2023.

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While Hale and Perry led the way in percentage growth, they both have tiny economies compared to the largest in the state.

Jefferson County, home to Birmingham, has by far the highest total GDP. It grew slightly, about 2% in 2023, and is approaching $50 billion per year.

The next closest economy in the state is in Madison County, home to Huntsville, and now the second most populous county in Alabama after it passed Mobile last year. Madison County reached a GDP of nearly $31 billion in 2023 after another year of strong growth — nearly 6%.

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On a per person basis, Madison’s economy is actually slightly more productive than Jefferson’s, with a per capita GDP of nearly $78,000 per person in 2023, compared to just shy of $75,000 per person in Jefferson.

Data released last month from the Bureau of Economic Analysis shows most Alabama counties — about 70% of them — saw their economies grow in fiscal year 2023 compared to the previous year. But not all of them grew.

20 counties saw their economies contract in 2023, including Shelby County, a suburban county in the Birmingham Metro area. In terms of median household income, Shelby County is the wealthiest county in the Alabama, but many of its residents work in Jefferson, helping boost Jefferson’s GDP. Still, despite a small decrease of about 0.2%, Shelby County boasted a GDP of about $13 billion in 2023, the fifth largest economy in the state.

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Only one county saw a double-digit decline in GDP in 2023. Clay County, among the smallest economies in the state, saw a 10.3% downturn.

Overall, Alabama’s economy grew by just 2.8%, just shy of the 2.9% growth rate of the U.S. economy as a whole. The state produced goods and services worth about $245 billion in 2023.

And those fast-growing economies in Alabama, which just cracked 10%, didn’t come close to the fastest-growing economies in the United States.

Texas dominated that list — 14 of the 20 U.S. counties with the fastest growing economies in the nation were in Texas, including many sparsely populated areas with rich oil industries.

And though most Alabama economies grew, the state actually fared worse than the nation overall. Roughly 75% of all U.S. counties saw an increase in GDP, compared to just 70% in Alabama.

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 [email protected] or follow him on Twitter and Bluesky.