Talk:Demographics of Alabama

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[edit] Racial Demographics

Some census figures from ADAH

1820: White= 96,245; Black= 48,082 (of which 633 free)
1830: White= 190,406; Black= 119,121 (of which 1,572 free)
1840: White= 335,185; Black= 255,571 (of which 2,039 free)
1850: White= 426,514; Black= 345,109 (of which 2,265 free)
1860: White= 526,271; Black= 437,770 (of which 2,690 free)
1870: White= 521,384; Black= 475,510
1880: White= 662,185; Black= 600,103
1890: White= 833,718; Black= 678,489
1900: White= 1,001,152; Black= 827,307
1910: White= 1,228,832; Black= 908,282
1920: White= 1,447,031; Black= 900,652
1930: White= 1,700,844; Black= 944,834
1940: White= 1,849,097; Black= 983,290
1950: White= 2,079,591; Black= 979,617
1960: White= 2,283,609; Black= 980,271
1970: White= 2,533,831; Black= 903,467
1980: White= 2,783,000; Black= 996,000
1990: White= 2,975,837; Black= 1,020,677
2000: White= 3,188,102; Black= 1,138,726

So from say, the mid 1860s to the mid 1880's African-Americans made up about 48% of the population. This is slightly different than "Until the early twentieth century, blacks made up half of Alabama's population." - I'm amending the paragraph. Much more could be said about settlement patterns. To me, saying that "Alabamians of British ancestry are numerically dominant in Huntsville, Auburn, and some suburbs of Mobile and Birmingham." doesn't really say much at all. At the least a more specific citation is needed.

[edit] Should this subarticle exist?

I think that it would be better to have this information back in the main article and not as a seperate article. The Demographics section was not very long, and shouldn't new subarticles only be created if the section is very, very long? - BSveen 19:36, July 16, 2005 (UTC)

It seemed the section was disproportionately long, especially just to restate a list of numbers that are easily available (and officially maintained) at census.gov. A summary of Alabama's demographics definitely belongs on the main page, but if there's going to be a lot of detail, my opinion is a subpage is the place for it. Dystopos 20:07, 16 July 2005 (UTC)