By Bobby Mathews, sports editor
TRUSSVILLE — The latest U.S. Census numbers released Thursday, August 12, 2021 showed Huntsville with a population of 215,600 sending the Rocket City past Birmingham as the largest city in the state. The Magic City saw its population fall to 200,733, the lowest number since the 1920s.
There were other — potentially more surprising — details that researchers found.
Take Trussville. In the 2010 Census, there were 19,933 people in the city. However, in the 2020 census, the city had grown substantially. The numbers released Thursday paint a surprising picture: Trussville has grown 31 percent over the course of the past decade. That means that 26,123 people now reside in Trussville.
“First of all, even though that number is higher than we expected, I’m not totally surprised by it,” said Trussville Mayor Buddy Choat. “I attribute it not only to where we are — a city that has a small-town feel, but is close to a larger city — and our quality of life. I think our schools helped with that as well. This is a city that feels safe, with a strong quality of life. I’m really pleased to see we have that kind of growth.”
Trussville outpaced larger, more well-known Birmingham suburbs like Hoover, which grew at a 13 percent rate, to 92,606 residents. Vestavia grew by 15 percent, to just more than 39,000.
“We did anticipate 15-20 percent growth in the city,” Choat said. “This will be a tremendous help to us, but as we go into a budget year after seeing this growth, we have to consider services we need to provide to our residents.”
Trussville has gone from the 31st-largest city in the state to the 23rd-largest. Also in The Tribune’s coverage area: Center Point’s growth fell by 3 percent, to 16,406 from the 2010 population of 16,921. Other cities in the Tribune coverage area include Argo – 4,368 up from 4,071 in 2010, Clay – 10,291 up from 9,708 in 2010, Leeds – 12,324 up from 11,773 in 2010, Moody – 13,170 up from 11,726 in 2010, Pinson – 7,215 up from 7,163 in 2010, and Springville – 4,786 up from 4,080 in 2010.
Enterprise, a similarly sized city to Trussville in southeastern Alabama, only showed 8 percent growth, going from 26,562 to 28,711.
Birmingham lost 5 percent of its population, while Huntsville gained 19 percent. And while Huntsville is now the largest single city in the state, the Birmingham Metro area still dwarfs the Huntsville Metro area, 1,151,801 to 462,693.
