Northwest Alabama

Northwest Alabama is a subdivision of the North Alabama region, and includes the cities of Decatur, Florence, Russellvile, and their surrounding areas in the state of Alabama. The county inclusion varies, usually only consisting of the Decatur Metropolitan Area and Florence-Muscle Shoals Metropolitan Area. Sometimes the city of Athens, and western portions of the Huntsville Metropolitan Area, are included. ^[1] But, these areas are usually associated with a separate political region such as North Central Alabama or Northeast Alabama. When all county populations are combined, the entire region is constituted of 450,525 people.

Locales

Rank	Metro Area	Population 2006 estimates
1	Decatur Metropolitan Area	149,269
2	Florence-Muscle Shoals Metropolitan Area	142,950

Rank	City	Population 2006 estimates	Metro Area
1	Decatur	55,758	Decatur
2	Florence	36,721	Florence-Muscle Shoals
3	Hartselle	13,479	Decatur
4	Muscle Shoals	12,703	Florence-Muscle Shoals
5	Sheffield	9,652	Florence-Muscle Shoals

Areas in italics aren't traditionally included in the NW Alabama region

Rank	County	Population 2006 estimates	County seat	Metro Area
1	Morgan	115,237	Decatur	Decatur
2	Lauderdale	87,891	Florence	Florence-Muscle Shoals
3	Limestone	72,446	Athens	Huntsville
3	Colbert	54,984	Tuscumbia	Florence-Muscle Shoals
4	Lawrence	34,321	Moulton	Decatur
5	Franklin	30,847	Russellville	None
6	Marion	30,165	Hamilton	None
7	Winston	24,634	Double Springs	None

State of Alabama

Montgomery (capital)

Topics	Index History Geography People Delegations Government Governors Lieutenant Governors Metropolitan Areas Visitor Attractions National Historic Landmarks

Regions	Atlantic Coastal Plain Birmingham District Black Belt Central Alabama Cumberland Plateau Greater Birmingham Gulf Coastal Plain Lower Alabama Mobile Bay North Alabama Northeast Alabama Northwest Alabama Piedmont Ridge and Valley River Region South Alabama Tennessee Valley Wiregrass Region

Metros	Greater Birmingham Montgomery Metro Area Mobile Metro Area Huntsville Metro Area

Larger cities	Anniston Auburn Birmingham Decatur Dothan Florence Gadsden Hoover Huntsville Madison Mobile Montgomery Tuscaloosa

Counties	Autauga Baldwin Barbour Bibb Blount Bullock Butler Calhoun Chambers Cherokee Chilton Choctaw Clarke Clay Cleburne Coffee Colbert Conecuh Coosa Covington Crenshaw Cullman Dale Dallas DeKalb Elmore Escambia Etowah Fayette Franklin Geneva Greene Hale Henry Houston Jackson Jefferson Lamar Lauderdale Lawrence Lee Limestone Lowndes Macon Madison Marengo Marion Marshall Mobile Monroe Montgomery Morgan Perry Pickens Pike Randolph Russell Shelby St. Clair Sumter Talladega Tallapoosa Tuscaloosa Walker Washington Wilcox Winston