In a continuing strong trend, 2024 was another year of growth for Limestone County. Athens Mayor Ronnie Marks has said time and again, that we can’t sto[p the progress. So, what to do? “The best way we can handle it is to try and grow smart and take care of our folks,” he has said in past interviews.

And that’s a lot of folks: In the most recent census data, for 2024, estimates for the 560 square miles that make up Limestone County indicate that there are 204.7 people per square mile — up from 185 people square mile in the 2023 US Census count.

To gauge what that means in geographic size: From the Forrest Street intersection with Hwy. 31 head east until you get to Lindsay Lane. Then you head north until you get to the round-a-bout at Hwy. 251 and head west. You’ll reach Hwy. 31 and take another left to head south until you finally get back to your starting point at Forrest Street. Everything within that square you’ve driven represents a square mile. In addition to multiple subdivisions and individuals’ properties, you also have a middle school, a park and greenway, as well as many businesses.  There are more than 40,000 households in the county. In the entire state there is a count of more than 1.96 million households.

Numbers such as these are why we take time each year to look at the progress of our county. This special section runs across two editions of The News Courier. The second part will be available Saturday, Feb. 26. To start, we’re breaking down the numbers to see what these increases actually look like.  The 2022 Census population estimate for Limestone County is 114,654, and Athens is more than 32,000. The county has gained about 5,000 people in a year with about 2,000 of those in the city of Athens alone. That is a nearly 4 percent increase in population in the county and about 6 percent increase for the city.  Looking back at the 2010 census, Limestone County had a population of 82,782 and Athens had 21,897. The percent increase between 2010-2020 was about 25 percent for the county and about 27 percent for the city. Our North Alabama neighbors have seen similar increases before us. Take the city of Madison in the 2000 census, for example. Then, it looked more like Athens does today. Madison had about 29,000 people and saw a 46 percent increase in population by 2010, and it didn’t stop growing after that.

But looking at Limestone’s numbers, we can take a closer look at the makeup of the county population:  The median age of residents in the county is slight younger than in the past, at 40.5 years old — versus 41 years old as we reported last year — which is only a little higher than the median range of the age of the entire population of the U.S. at about 39. Sixty-two percent of the county population is in the 18 to 64 age range.  Nearly 80 percent of the county is white, which is about 11 percent higher than Alabama’s report of 68.9 percent.

A little more than 14 percent of the county is black, which is about half of the same report in the state, at 26.8 percent. Almost 7 percent of the county is Hispanic, which is more than that of the state at about 5 percent. About 2.5 percent of the population identifies as two or more race/ethnicities, which is more than reported for the state at 2 percent. Two percent of people report Asian ethnicity, and 1 percent report Native ethnicity.

The median household income in the county is $83,534, which is about 25 percent higher than the rest of Alabama. Thirty-six percent of people in the county report their household makes less than $50K a year. That’s on par with the rest of the country and is slightly better than the state, which reports 46 percent.  About 10 percent of people are reported below the poverty line in the county, which is lower than the 16 percent reported for the state and 12 percent for the whole country. Seventeen percent of those 65 and older are reported below the poverty line. That is more than the 11 percent reported by the state and 10 percent reported by the country.

The county and city have services for those who are considered seniors. The Limestone County Council on Aging and Athens Activity Center are just two places those who are aging can reach out to for help for things such as transportation and meal services. There were 7,400 veterans in the county at the last report. In 2022, that was only slightly less than the state’s rate at 8 percent and nearly on par with the rate of the U.S. A majority of veterans served in the Gulf war. Forty-five reported service from WWII and 257 reported service in the Korean war; 2,025 reported Vietnam service.

More than 87 percent of the population has at least graduated from high school, which is on par with the 87 percent of the state and 89 percent of the country. Almost 30 percent of people in the county have a bachelor’s degree or higher, which is about the same as that in the state but less than the 34.3 percent reported in the country. In 2022, 17 percent of the population reported having no degree, which is more than the 12 percent reported by the state and the 11 percent reported in the country.  Nearly 88 percent of county households reported having a broadband internet subscription as of 2022, and 93 percent had a computer. In the state, those numbers are 83.8 percent and 91.1 percent, while Athens reported a 85.3 percent broadband connection, and 92.5 percent of households reported having a computer.  The News Courier will have an update on city and county education systems as well as colleges in the area in our second progress edition next week.