Birmingham's slide in the population rankings

While the city of Birmingham has slipped to the fourth-largest city in Alabama, metro Birmingham remains the state’s largest metro by far.

Will that be the case 50 years from now? Influential local leaders are divided.

That’s one takeaway from the most recent Power Poll, which asked local leaders for their opinions about the Magic City’s recent slide in the rankings of the state’s largest cities.

Thanks to some recent annexations, Mobile recently jumped Birmingham and left the Magic City as the fourth-largest in Alabama.

While local officials have dismissed Birmingham’s fall and shifted focus to the metro population, many Power Poll respondents expressed concerns about Birmingham’s slide.

When asked to rate their level of concern on a scale of 1 (not at all concerned) to 5 (very concerned), 43% of respondents chose 4 or 5.

Only 15% said they were not at all concerned.

While metro Birmingham (1.1 million) currently has a large lead on metro Huntsville (514,465) in population, only 52% of respondents believe metro Birmingham will still be the state’s largest in 50 years.

Metro Huntsville has been outpacing metro Birmingham’s growth for years, but 43% of respondents said they are not at all concerned about that development, while only 7% said they were very concerned.