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Origin of name: May come from Choctaw meaning
“thicket-clearers” or “vegetation-gatherers”
10 largest cities (2005 est.): Birmingham,
231,483; Montgomery, 200,127; Mobile, 191,544; Huntsville, 166,313; Tuscaloosa,
81,358; Hoover, 67,469; Dothan, 62,713; Decatur, 54,909; Auburn, 49,928;
Gadsden, 37,405
Land Area: 50,744 sq mi. (131,427 sq km)
Geographic Center: In Chilton Co., 12 mi. SW of
Clanton
Number of Counties: 67
Largest county by population & Area:
Jefferson, 657,229 (2005); Baldwin, 1,596 sq mi.
State Forests: 21 (48,000 ac.)
State Parks: 22 (45,614 ac.)
Residents: Alabamian, Alabaman
2005 Resident Population Est.: 4,557,808
2000 Resident Census Population (rank): 4,447,100
(23). Male: 2,146,504 (48.3%); Female: 2,300,596 (51.7%). White:
3,162,808 (71.1%); Black: 1,155,930 (26.0%); American Indian:
22,430 (0.5%); Asian: 31,346 (0.7%); Other race: 28,998 (0.7%); Two
or more races: 44,179 (1.0%); Hispanic/Latino: 75,830 (1.7%). 2000
percent population 18 and over: 74.7; 65 and over: 13.0; median
age: 35.8.
Alabama History
Spanish explorers are believed to have arrived at Mobile Bay in 1519, and
the territory was visited in 1540 by the explorer Hernando de Soto. The first
permanent European settlement in Alabama was founded by the French at Fort Louis
de la Mobile in 1702. The British gained control of the area in 1763 by the
Treaty of Paris but had to cede almost all the Alabama region to the U.S. and
Spain after the American Revolution. The Confederacy was founded at Montgomery
in Feb. 1861, and, for a time, the city was the Confederate capital.
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