What would it look like if a county added nearly 20 people every single day?

Just ask residents of Madison and Baldwin counties, two of the fastest growing counties in Alabama. Each of those, on opposite ends of the state, added about 7,000 people between 2021 and 2022, according to new data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

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That’s about 19 people each day between July 1, 2021 and July 1, 2022.

Madison County is home to Huntsville, Alabama’s largest city and the only of the state’s major cities that’s growing. Baldwin County is home to the state’s beaches and Mobile suburbs, along with it’s own supercharged fast-growing small cities like Daphne, Fairhope and Foley.

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Madison and Baldwin are Alabama’s 3rd and 4th largest counties, and both have been booming for years. The same can’t be said for the other two largest counties in the state.

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Jefferson County, by far the biggest of Alabama’s 67 counties and home to Birmingham and the bulk of the Birmingham-Hoover Metro Area’s population, lost nearly 4,600 people from 2021 to 2022, or roughly 13 per day. Mobile County, the second largest county in the state, lost around 1,600 people – or four per day.

No other counties were particularly close in terms of raw population gains or losses.

Other key takeaways

Madison and Baldwin counties may have added the most total people during the year, but neither was the fastest-growing in terms of percentages.

Limestone County, which has led the state for the last few years in population growth, once again topped the list for rate of gain, growing by 3.3% in a year. Limestone, home to Athens and Huntsville suburbs, was followed by Baldwin (3%), Madison (1.8%), Lee (1.8%) and Chilton (1.4%).

Overall, 37 of Alabama’s 67 counties grew in 2022. Much of north Alabama grew, along with most of the suburban counties in the Birmingham-Hoover metro area. The Wiregrass region in southeast Alabama also saw growth.

And so did counties that are home to the state’s major public universities, mirroring national trends. Lee County, home to Auburn University, added 3,100 people, and Tuscaloosa County, home to the University of Alabama, added 1,100 people.

[Can’t see the map? Click here.]

Many counties in the Black Belt, including several that have been shrinking for years, continued to lose people in 2022. Perry County led the list of fastest-shrinking counties, losing 3.4% of its population in a year. Wilcox (-2.6%), Greene (-2.2%), Dallas (-2.1%) and Macon (-2.1%), all in the Black Belt, were next on the list.

Do you have an idea for a data story about Alabama? Or questions about Alabama that data may be able to answer? Email Ramsey Archibald at [email protected], and follow him on Twitter @RamseyArchibald. Read more Alabama data stories here.