A lot to unpack here.
This story is about 6-8 months old at this point. While I am sure not everyone is aware, it is kind of old news and not really a hot button item anymore, in addition to it being predicted for several years. Also, Birmingham didn't lose population for a decade, it lost population for 6 decades, as all other rust belt style cities did.
As previously stated, the metro is all that matters in the USA, and while it is annoying that the city proper is no longer the largest, it is generally irrelevant.
But the actual story here is this: There is absolutely zero way that Birmingham's population numbers are accurate. Just the smell test alone doesn't pass. The city has added 10,000 apartment/condo units since 2010, and yet population falls?
Look at neighborhood level numbers:
https://www.al.com/news/2021/08/black-po...-grew.html
There is absolutely, positively zero way that Glen Iris lost 22% of its population; most definitely not with no significant decrease in housing stock and a fairly large uptick in UAB students over that time, which is a sizeable chunk of Glen Iris. There is absolutely zero way that Woodlawn lost 40% of its population. This is an area that has seen an uptick in housing flips, new housing, and gentrification(not here to argue about gentrification, but it is a fact in Woodlawn).
Look at voter rolls. No, that is not 100% indicative of population, but it doesn't add up. In 2011, the city had 118,500 registered voters. In 2021, the city had 145,564 registered voters. So the number of registered voters increased by 27,000 but the population feel by 12,000? Seems pretty implausible. Not an absolute fact, but when taken in context with other data, it doesn't make sense. All data can be seen here:
https://www.birminghamal.gov/city-directory/city-clerk/
School enrollment: Birmingham City Schools lost about 1,000 students between 2010 and 2020. But, the city now has a few charter schools. i3 Academy in Woodlawn alone has over 400 students. Sure not every single student at the charter schools are from the city of Birmingham, but the vast majority are.
Then there is this just recently:
https://www.al.com/news/2022/03/minority...ensus.html
Minority groups(defined here as black, hispanic, native american, asian, renters) were undercounted in a way that dramatically impacted Birmingham(and didn't as negatively impact Huntsville). Birmingham has a relatively high percentage of Black population and renters, the 2 most undercounted groups. Per the census' own estimates from 2019, the actuals in 2020 were 10% below.
Why there was not a stronger appeal by the city of Birmingham regarding census numbers remains a mystery and is frankly a dereliction of duty. Would it have actually mattered? Hard to say. But there should have been an attempt.
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Birmingham is no longer the largest city in Alabama. Did ya know that?
