Alabama is part of the Southern states seeing a boost in population numbers. The South accounted for 87% of the nation’s growth in 2023, adding more than 1.4 million residents for a total population of 130,125,290. That’s according to recent figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, which also shows the South is the only region to have maintained population growth throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Texas and California are locations losing the most residents to the Yellowhammer State. The list comes from a new report released by the data analysis company Stacker.
The outlet reports 23,155 people moved to Alabama from Georgia in 2022. 18,236 additional residents from Florida moved to the Yellowhammer State during the same time, along with 11,634 inhabitants from Tennessee. Stacker also shows 10,102 people moved to Alabama from Texas in 2022, while 8,012 California residents migrated to the state the same year.
Lee Sentell is the director of the Alabama Tourism Department. He said people have a tendency to move to the South, regardless of where they are in the country, but the uptick in people moving here likely has a lot to do with the state’s economy.
“Alabama is very much less expensive to live in than in these top five states that send people here,” he said. “Whether people are coming to visit or moving here, they've done their research, and they know that our taxes are low.”
The Yellowhammer State ranks second, just behind Mississippi, on the list of most affordable states from U.S. News. Sentell said money goes farther in Alabama, with low housing prices, low overall cost of living and less expensive electricity rates. He added another reason he thinks people move to the Yellowhammer State is for the climate.
“That’s why Alabama gets so many people moving from the Midwest and the Northeast. Our weather is much friendlier to people,” he said. “Heating bills are not nearly as expensive in Alabama as they are in a lot of these states.”
Besides the state’s robust economy, Sentell said Alabama has two major tourist attractions that might be part of the appeal of moving to the Yellowhammer State. One is the U.S. Space and Rocket Center (USSRC) in Huntsville. From America’s first satellite, Saturn I, to next-generation space vehicles like NASA’s Space Launch System, the museum showcases the past, present and future of human spaceflight.
According to the USSRC, the center is the most comprehensive U.S. manned spaceflight hardware museum in the world, and its large rocket and space hardware collection is valued in the tens of millions of dollars.
The Space and Rocket Center serves as the visitor center for NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Huntsville calls itself the Rocket City because it is the development site of the first rocket to send a human to the moon. The USSRC is also home to Space Camp, a program for youth based on NASA astronaut training.
“I'm proud to say that I worked in the Space and Rocket Center a number of years ago and help start Space Camp,” Sentell shared. “A lot of people never had reasons to come to Alabama, but their kids wanted to go to Space Camp. There's no other place in the country that you can go and get the experience and get the tour that you get when you go to the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville.”
Another major tourist attraction, and reason enough for many people to move to Alabama, is the beaches along the state’s Gulf Coast. The white sand beaches of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach attract thousands of visitors each year, bringing the state a boost in tourism revenue. Sentell said beachgoers might like the surf and sand enough to move to Alabama.
“I’m happy to say that our beach traffic has exploded in the last 10 years. 10 years ago, we had tourism expenditures of about $11 billion,” he said. “In the last several years, we are now at $22 [billion], $23 [billion] and $24 billion a year being spent at hotels and tourist attractions in the state. So, to have doubled in 10 years is pretty phenomenal.”
Sentell added Alabama barbecue and Birmingham restaurants are also appealing to foodies, which might make them want to call the Yellowhammer State home.
More information on Stacker’s list of states sending the most people to Alabama can be found here.
