The first long-distance auto race in the U. S. was held May 30, 1911, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Those citing "American" ancestry in Alabama are of overwhelmingly English extraction, however most English Americans identify simply as having American ancestry because their roots have been in North America for so long, in many cases since the early sixteen hundreds. Stanley Lieberson and Lawrence Santi, 'The Use of Nativity Data to Estimate Ethnic Characteristics and Patterns'. Alabama used to be covered in grassland. It has long served as an entry point for various groups settling in other parts of the state. About 120,000 white Alabama men served in the Confederate forces. Have a minute spare for 5 random facts? This region remains predominantly African American, where many freedmen settled to work at agriculture after the Civil War. This includes a natural increase of 87,818 (375,808 births minus 287,990 deaths) and a net migration of 73,178 people into the state. Historically, African Americans were brought to Alabama as slaves, in greatest numbers in the cotton-producing plantation region known as the Black Belt. The racial makeup of the state and comparison to the prior census: Note: Births in table don't add up, because Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving a higher overall number. This includes a natural increase of 87,818 (375,808 births minus 287,990 deaths) and a net migration of 73,178 people into the state. Population, Census, April 1, 2010. [16] Many people in Alabama claim Irish ancestry because of the term "Scots-Irish", but most of the time in Alabama this term is used for those with Scottish roots, rather than Irish. alabama fun facts and trivia. When the first Europeans came to Alabama it looked so very different to how it does today. Authorities haven't filed any charges in the death of a man who police say was fatally wounded while breaking into a home in south Alabama. More than 20% of Tennessee’s Black adults cannot vote due to a felony conviction, while 8% of the state’s overall adult population is disenfranchised, according to a newly released report. [11][12][13][14][15] There are also many more people in Alabama of Scots-Irish origins than are self-reported. Alabama’s most populous county will open its courthouses for absentee voting on two Saturdays because of the heavy turnout expected on Election Day and the pandemic. The state was named after the Alabama River. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. Best States is an interactive platform developed by U.S. News for ranking the 50 U.S. states, alongside news analysis and daily reporting. Martin Luther King Jr. led thousands of activists in a roughly 50-mile march from Selma to Montgomery after weeks of being blocked by local police, sometimes violently. After the war, segregation prevailed in the South, and in Alabama in particular. 4,779,736. Police in Alabama have arrested a wig-wearing suspect accused of smashing through the glass door of a local television station Wednesday. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 30,537 and migration within the country produced a net increase of 42,641. Today, the state has about 5 million residents, with the most populous cities being Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, Huntsville and Tuscaloosa, home of the University of Alabama. U.S. Sen. Doug Jones is outspending Republican challenger Tommy Tuberville in the home stretch of Alabama’s Senate race. Population estimates, July 1, 2019, (V2019) 4,903,185. Stanley Lieberson and Mary C. Waters, 'Ethnic Groups in Flux: The Changing Ethnic Responses of American Whites', CDC's STATE System - State Comparison Report Cigarette Use (Adults) – BRFSS, Cigarette Smoking Among Adults --- United States, 2006, Ancestry of the Population by State: 1980 - Table 3, "Alabama - Selected Social Characteristics in the United States: 2006-2008", Census 2000 Map – top U.S. ancestries by county, 2000 Census of Population and Housing for Alabama, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Demographics_of_Alabama&oldid=957560194, Articles with dead external links from September 2017, Articles with permanently dead external links, Wikipedia articles in need of updating from December 2017, All Wikipedia articles in need of updating, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, * AIAN is American Indian or Alaskan Native; NHPI is Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, This page was last edited on 19 May 2020, at 12:59. The northern part of the state, originally settled by small farmers with fewer slaves, is predominantly European American. Reynolds Farley, 'The New Census Question about Ancestry: What Did It Tell Us?'. The U.S. Space & Rocket Center, home to Space Camp and the visitor center for NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, is in Huntsville. As of 2000, 96.7% of Alabama residents age 5 and older speak English at home and 2.2% speak Spanish. Two Alabama police officers who were killed in the line of duty in the 1920s are finally getting markers for the graves. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 30,537 and migration within the country produced a net increase of 42,641. 15 Awesome Facts About Alabama. The 2010 census estimated Alabama's population at 4,802,740, an increase of 332,636 or 7.5% since 2000. As of 2000, 25.3% of residents of the state were under 18, 6.7% were under 5, and 13.0% were over 65. The overall Best State ranking from U.S. News & World Report shows how each of the 50 U.S. states ranks in 77 metrics across eight categories. The Confederacy was born in Montgomery, its first capital during the Civil War. In 1972, state redistricting and federal voter and election regulations allowed hundreds of thousands of Alabamians, both white and black, to vote for the first time. In the mid-20th century, the state was at the forefront of the civil rights movement and peaceful activism against racial segregation. Officials say Alabama has completed the U.S. Census on par with other states. The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. Population estimates base, April 1, 2010, (V2019) 4,780,125. The Port of Mobile, founded by the French and subsequently controlled by England, Spain, and the United States, has long had an ethnically diverse population. Population, percent change - April 1, 2010 (estimates base) to July 1, 2019, (V2019) 2.6%. The president of the University of Alabama in Huntsville has apologized to the family of a Black teen who was pulled over by campus police after the teen's mother posted about the incident on social media.