Ultimate Free Guide on Birmingham Alabama
Birmingham Alabama’s most populous city and the seat of Jefferson County, is located in the state’s north-central region. Birmingham had a population of 200,733 people in 2020, making it Alabama’s second-largest city after Huntsville.
Birmingham, the newest of the state’s main cities, was created in 1871 at the intersection of two rail lines near one of the world’s richest mineral resources. Birmingham, England, was chosen as the city’s name because it is the heart of the country’s iron industry.
The new community in Alabama grew so swiftly that it earned the nickname “Magic City.” After the Pennsylvania center of iron and steel manufacturing, it became known as the “Pittsburgh of the South.”
Birmingham Alabama has weathered economic booms and busts, labor turmoil, and civil rights tragedies and victories, and now it is home to one of the country’s major banking hubs and world-class medical institutions.
Birmingham is governed by a mayor-council system, with the mayor and nine council members elected every four years.
Birmingham Alabama History
Birmingham Alabama is located in Jones Valley, one of the Appalachian mountain chain’s southernmost valleys. The first settlers to arrive in 1815 were veterans of Gen. Andrew Jackson’s army, who defeated the Creeks at Horseshoe Bend.
Two occurrences occurred shortly after Birmingham became the county seat, putting the city’s survival in jeopardy.
A cholera pandemic struck numerous southern towns in July, and Birmingham was particularly hard hit due to a lack of clean water and proper sanitation infrastructure.
Thousands of people were forced to flee the city. The economic Panic of 1873 slowed Birmingham’s real estate development just as colder fall weather began to put a stop to the pandemic.
People were once again compelled to leave since no big industry had yet been formed to generate a sufficient number of employees. Birmingham, on the other hand, escaped these early disasters thanks to its proximity to vast mineral reserves, which quickly made it the New South’s industrial capital.
Economic Development in Birmingham Alabama
The purchase of TCI by U.S. Steel in 1907, which brought financial resources to Birmingham, and the completion of the lock-and-dam system on the Tombigbee and Warrior Rivers in 1915, which provided Birmingham manufacturers with cheap water transportation for their goods all the way to Mobile, where the two most important economic developments in Birmingham between 1900 and the Great Depression. Birmingham swiftly established itself as the mid-transportation South’s center.
The stock market fell in October 1929, just as the city’s economy was starting to pick up again, putting thousands of inhabitants out of work and causing the Hoover administration to label Birmingham “the most stricken city in the nation.” Birmingham remained poor for eight years after U.S. Steel closed its operations.
With the onset of World War II, Birmingham’s steel mills rebounded from the Depression and became a vital element of the nation’s arsenal. Birmingham’s economy was diversified after the war with the addition of 140 new companies that produced agricultural equipment, chemicals, byproducts used in road construction, nails, wire, cement, cottonseed oil, and a variety of other things.
Birmingham in the 1950s had the potential to rocket into the 1960s, thanks to these new businesses, as well as Hayes International Aircraft and the opening of a sophisticated hospital complex.
Instead, local authorities and people were confronted with a massive civil rights battle that shattered the city’s national reputation and limited its ability to recruit investment.
Demographics of Birmingham Alabama
According to 2016 Census estimates, Birmingham is the state’s most populated city, with a population of 212,424.
The population of the greater metropolitan area, which includes Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Bessemer, Alabaster, Homewood, Mountain Brook, Hueytown, Center Point, Pelham, Trussville, Gardendale, Fairfield, Forestdale, Leeds, Pleasant Grove, Irondale, Tarrant, and Fultondale, was estimated to be around 1,146,880 people.
72.0 percent of respondents identified as African American, 24.3 percent white, 3.4 percent Hispanic, 1.3 percent as two or more races, 0.9 percent Asian, and 0.2 percent Native American, out of Birmingham’s total population.
The typical family income in the city was $32,404, with a per capita income of $20,791.
Employment in Birmingham Alabama
Birmingham’s workforce was divided into the following industrial groups, according to 2016 Census estimates:
- Services such as education, health care, and social aid are all available (26.9 percent)
- Accommodation and food services, as well as the arts, entertainment, and recreation (11.5 percent)
- The retail industry (10.8 percent)
- Services in professional, scientific, managerial, administrative, and waste management (10.5 percent)
- Industrial production (8.3 percent)
- Finance, insurance, and real estate, rental, and leasing are all areas of expertise (7.2 percent)
- Aside from public administration, there are a variety of other services available (5.6 percent)
- Utilities, transportation, and warehousing (5.5 percent)
- Work on the building (4.2 percent)
- Administration of the state (4.1 percent)
- Trade-in bulk (2.6 percent)
- Obtaining information (2.5 percent)
- Agribusiness, forestry, fishing, and hunting, as well as extractive industries (0.3 percent)
Education in Birmingham Alabama
Birmingham City School System is in charge of a huge number of public schools in the city. In addition to UAB, Birmingham-Southern College and Samford University are two additional important schools of higher learning in the city.
Other educational options in the Birmingham Alabama region include historically black Miles College and Miles Law School, Birmingham School of Law, Jefferson State Community College, and Lawson State Community College. Birmingham is also home to Southeastern Bible College, a nondenominational four-year institution.
Places To Visit in Birmingham Alabama
The Vulcan statue, which stands atop Red Mountain and overlooks Birmingham, is the city’s most famous attraction. Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and metallurgy, was created by Italian sculptor Guiseppe Moretti in 1904.
Vulcan Park reopened to the public in 2004 following a four-year refurbishment and had over 100,000 visitors in its inaugural year. The Civil Rights Institute, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, and Kelly Ingram Park are all popular tourist attractions.
The Renaissance Birmingham Alabama Ross Bridge Golf Resort & Spa, only a few miles southwest of downtown Birmingham, boasts the world’s third-longest golf course.