What county will join the Birmingham CSA next?

[Blazer85]

What county will be next to join the Birmingham-Hoover-Cullman CSA? Looks like it will be Talladega County. They were VERY close in the 2000 Census so I would expect them to be included very soon. If included, the Birmingham-Hoover-Cullman-Talladega CSA would move from 1.17 million to about 1.25 million. Had never really thought of Talladega Co. before until I thought about all the people commuting up and down 280.

[kayman]

I agree it would probably be Talledega because of the cross-commuting between Birmingham to Lincoln and Sylacauga to Birmingham.

[PghUSA]

Interesting to see Birmingham expand their metro, Pittsburgh has recently been pushing for the census to recognize another 3 counties (and they got one of them in--but alas the least populated of the 3). I have always thought that Birmingham was a great city too often overlooked because of its proximity to Atlanta. Maybe gaining more of a metro footprint will help you attract more business to the region!

[codyg1985]

Talladega has the greatest chance at it, but data suggests that Talladega sends more commuters to Calhoun County than all of the Birmingham MSA counties combined.

Cullman County, while technically part of a Micropolitan area of the same name, is combined with the Birmingham-Hoover MSA to form the Birmingham-Hoover-Cullman CMSA. A fair amount of commuters commute from Cullman County to the Birmingham MSA, but commuters also travel from there to Decatur and Huntsville.

Bibb County also sends commuters to Tuscaloosa County, but still sends more to the Birmingham MSA, which is why it was included. There is a small chance that the Tuscaloosa MSA may be combined with the Birmingham-Hoover MSA and Cullman Micropolitan area based on Bibb County. That would form a Birmingham-Tuscaloosa-Hoover-Cullman CSA, which would encompass the 11 or 12 counties of Bibb, Blount, Chilton, Cullman, Hale, Greene, Jefferson, Pickens (may be added to Tuscaloosa in the future), Shelby, St. Clair, Tuscaloosa, and Walker.

[Blazer85]

Personally, I think there's more inter-reliance between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham than Bibb County and Birmingham. I know it's a percentage deal, but nevertheless, I think of Tuscaloosa as part of metro Birmingham moreso than I do somewhere like Bibb County... at least at this point.

[DruidCity]

Bibb County is an interesting "crossroads." The Town of Woodstock, for instance, has now annexed a little bit of Tuscaloosa County.

I think of Tuscaloosa as part of metro Birmingham moreso than I do somewhere like Bibb County

That's one of the problems with the "county-block" method the census uses to determine metropolitan areas.

There's no doubt that the easternmost part of Tuscaloosa County (Tannehill/Abernant/Bucksville/Lakeview area) considers itself more a part of the "Birmingham area" than the "Tuscaloosa area," as it is closer to downtown Birmingham than to downtown Tuscaloosa.

That said, at this point, the Tuscaloosa urbanized area is mostly a self-contained job market.

Whenever eastern Tuscaloosa County and western Jefferson County begin to really build, I expect the metro areas could form a CMSA, if the census is even using the same type of terminology by then.

I'm guessing it's still 20+ years away.

Region 2020 has an interesting take on what a 12-county "Greater Birmingham" should consist of :

http://www.region2020.org/2020map/map.html

[Blazer85]

Yeah... that Region 2020 really captures what I think will eventually, at some point or another, be considered part of Birmingham. I know a number of people that commute to and from Gadsden and Anniston every day for work.