Why would one area of a state have twice the economic activity of the rest of the state? Even if it’s primarily rural? I wondered why this occurred as I read the Northern Alabama Industrial Development Association (NAIDA) Annual Report Headlines for 2004.
The 13 county area of NAIDA (www.naida.com) encompasses 16% of the land area of the state and accounts for 22% of the population. The largest city is Huntsville which is dwarfed in Alabama by Birmingham, Montgomery and Mobile. I wrote about how Huntsville grew from a town of 16,000 to 160,000 in the past 50 years in my February 5, 2005 blog (see my archives) by finishing in second place in a national competition. Other than the counties which have Huntsville and Decatur, all of the other 11 counties are under 100,000 populations. Half of the agurbs® I found in my research of Alabama are located in this region.
But this largely rural area of the state created 45% of the new jobs in the state; 45% of the new capital investment; 30% of the new companies; and 41% of existing company expansions. In other words they are almost double the activity of the rest of the state on either a per capita or area metric.
Two factors come to mind as I review these figures. First is the impact of a strong regional economic development group like NAIDA, which has been facilitating new business and job creation for decades. It is firmly established, well funded, highly respected and forging new paths for Northern Alabama. The second factor is the prevalence of small farms in Northern Alabama compared to the rest of the state. Those small farmers have developed a unique, strong work ethic which makes them prized employees for new firms moving into the region.
Northern Alabama is a region that has a very bright future. It is a region on the move and one that you’ll see more of in the future.
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