Birmingham, Alabama - Cool Facts

• Metro Birmingham population: 921,106 (4-county area); 986,000(6 counties); 1,100,000 (7counties).
   
• 2.7 million people live within 100 miles of Birmingham.
   
• The city’s temperate climate allows a 239 day growing season, resulting in an extended spring and fall.
   
• The nation’s 15th fastest-growing county (1997) is in metro Birmingham: Shelby County.
   
• A 32 page section on the "Magic City" was run in Traditional Home, the nation’s best selling upscale design publication with a monthly circulation of 950,000, marking only the second time in its history that they’ve done a feature on a city (Seattle was the other). "Birmingham is a design jewel and an anomaly, the most unexpected and amazing Southern city this magazine has ever visited. The surprises just didn’t stop." Traditional Home, March, 2005
   
• A monthly business magazine for executives of companies actively looking for a place to expand or relocate their facilities within the next one to three years, has released its 7th annual "America's 50 Hottest Cities" ranking. Metropolitan Birmingham ranks #15 for 2005, ahead of Salt Lake City, Chicago, Miami, Memphis and Raleigh-Durham, among others. "Some cities are well-prepared to attract and retain businesses," said Ken Krizner, managing editor of Expansion Management. "They have logistical advantages, a high quality of life, available work force, and a favorable tax and political climate. These 50 Hottest Cities have a built-in advantage when companies look to site a new manufacturing or distribution facility, or headquarters operation." Expansion Management, January, 2005
   
• Birmingham is the 7th best U. S. city for blacks to live, work and play. "Birmingham boasts the highest percentage of African American homeowners, 58%, of any of the top ten cities in America for blacks." Black Enterprise magazine, June 29, 2004.
   
• Birmingham’s water quality received an "A" ranking (only 13 of 101 cities nationwide were as highly ranked and none higher; 7 cities failed including Houston, Las Vegas and Wichita) by a joint study of the Environmental Quality Institute at UNC, Rutgers University and the National Defense Institute, Men’s Health, January, 2004.