Take this UA Quiz on the Heart of Dixie; No Peeking

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – How well do you know the Heart of Dixie? Well, the U.S. Census Bureau has just released its estimates of Alabama’s county populations by age, sex, race and Hispanic origin, and Annette Watters, manager of the State Data Center at The University of Alabama, has devised this little quiz. Get out your pencils. Answers follow.

Question 1: Which county has the state’s oldest population?

Question 2: Which county has the state’s youngest population?

Question 3: Which county has the highest proportion of Hispanics?

Drumrollllllllllllllll …

Answer No. 1: Marion County, located in northwest Alabama, has the state’s oldest population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. “Nearly 18 percent of Marion County’s population is 65 years old or older,” Watters said. “Lamar and Fayette counties, immediately south of Marion County, almost tie their northern neighbor for senior status. More than 17 percent of the people in both Lamar and Fayette counties are 65 years old or older. The statewide average is 13.5 percent in that age category.

Tallapoosa County, on the other side of the state, is the only other Alabama county with a senior population slightly greater than 17 percent of the county’s total population.

Answer No. 2: Perry County, in Alabama’s Black Belt, in one sense of the word is the state’s youngest county, Watters said. “More than 32 percent of Perry County residents are younger than 20 years old. Other counties with high proportions of young residents are much bigger counties. Mobile, Montgomery and Shelby counties have more than 29 percent of their respective populations aged 0 to 19.

And Answer No. 3? – Franklin County, the county immediately north of Marion County has the highest proportion of Hispanics of all counties in Alabama, at 12.5 percent. Watters said nearly 9 percent of Marshall County’s population is Hispanic, and slightly more than 8 percent of Shelby County’s population is Hispanic. The statewide average is 2.7 percent. “Bullock and Barbour counties in southeast Alabama rank with Shelby County among the counties in the state that have added the most new Hispanic residents this decade,” Watters said.

The federal government treats Hispanic origin and race as separate and distinct concepts, and Hispanics may be of any race, according to Watters.

“These data are estimates of the population as of July 1, 2007,” Watters said, adding that the Census Bureau annually estimates the population change from the 2000 Census of all U.S. counties by age, race, gender and Hispanic origin.