The Montgomery, Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area (commonly known as the Tri-Counties or the River Region) is a

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban area, urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories which share Industry (economics), industries, commercial areas, Transport infrastructure, transport network ...

in central

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

. As of 2020, the MSA had a population of 386,047, ranking it 142nd among

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Metropolitan Statistical Areas. That number is up +3.07% from the 2010 census number of 374,536.

Counties

* Autauga * Elmore * Lowndes * Montgomery

Communities

Places with more than 200,000 inhabitants

* Montgomery (Principal city)

Places with 10,000 to 35,000 inhabitants

* Millbrook * Prattville * Pike Road

Places with 1,000 to 10,000 inhabitants

* Blue Ridge (

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

) * Coosada * Eclectic * Fort Deposit * Hayneville *

Mosses Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta ('' sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and ho ...

* Tallassee (partial) * Wetumpka * White Hall * Pine Level * Redland

Places with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants

* Autaugaville * Benton * Billingsley * Deatsville * Elmore * Gordonville * Lowndesboro

Unincorporated places

* Booth * Equality (part of Equality is in Elmore County) * Letohatchee * Davenport

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 346,528 people, 129,717 households, and 90,298 families residing within the MSA. The racial makeup of the MSA was 57.32%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 40.27%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.31% Native American, 0.77% Asian, 0.03%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 0.37% from other races, and 0.94% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 1.20% of the population. The median income for a household in the MSA was $35,567, and the median income for a family was $42,304. Males had a median income of $31,881 versus $22,995 for females. The per capita income for the MSA was $16,996.

Combined Statistical Area

The original Montgomery– Alexander City Combined Statistical Area (CSA) was made up of six counties in central Alabama. The statistical area included the Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical area and the former Alexander City Micropolitan Statistical Area, composed of Coosa and Tallapoosa Counties. As of the 2000 Census, the CSA had a population of 400,205 (though a July 1, 2009 estimate placed the population at 417,965). In 2013, the United States

Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). The office's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, while it also examines agency pro ...

removed the Alexander City Micropolitan Statistical Area and Montgomery-Alexander City Combined Statistical Area from the list of metropolitan areas.OMB BULLETIN NO. 13-01: Revised Delineations of Metropolitan Statistical Areas, Micropolitan Statistical Areas, and Combined Statistical Areas, and Guidance on Uses of the Delineations of These Areas
Office of Management and Budget. February 28, 2013. In September of 2018 the OMB reinstated Montgomery CSA. Officially named the Montgomery–Selma–Alexander City, AL CSA, it consisted of the 4 county Montgomery MSA, the Selma, AL ( Dallas County) micropolitan area, and a re-added Alexander City ( Coosa County and Tallapoosa County) micropolitan area. This seven-county area was, to date, the largest extent of the Montgomery area. When the OMB revised its definitions in 2023, Alexander City was again removed from the CSA with Tallapoosa County added to the nearby Columbus–Auburn–Opelika combined statistical area and with Coosa County becoming part of the Talladega–Sylacauga Micropolitan Statistical Area. The current CSA (Montgomery–Selma, AL CSA) consists of one metropolitan area and one micropolitan area, totaling five counties: * Montgomery, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area ** Autauga County ** Elmore County ** Lowndes County ** Montgomery County * Selma, AL Micropolitan Statistical Area ** Dallas County

Politics

For the first half of the 20th century, the Montgomery metropolitan area leaned towards the Democratic Party, as did the rest of the

Solid South The Solid South was the electoral voting bloc for the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party in the Southern United States between the end of the Reconstruction era in 1877 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the aftermath of the Co ...

. It was one of the first regions in Alabama to flip towards the Republican Party, narrowly voting for

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

in 1960. With the one exception of

George Wallace George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who was the 45th and longest-serving governor of Alabama (1963–1967; 1971–1979; 1983–1987), and the List of longest-serving governors of U.S. s ...

's third-party win in 1968, the Montgomery MSA would continue voting for Republicans, by varying margins, until

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

's narrow victory there in 2012. No candidate has won the MSA by more than 3 percentage points in the most recent three presidential elections.

Transportation

* Interstate 65 * Interstate 85 * U.S. Highway 31 * U.S. Highway 80 * U.S. Highway 82 * U.S. Highway 231 * U.S. Highway 331

References

External links

The River Region Online
{{Coord, 32, 21, 42, N, 86, 16, 45, W, display=title Geography of Montgomery County, Alabama Geography of Elmore County, Alabama Geography of Autauga County, Alabama Geography of Lowndes County, Alabama Geography of Montgomery, Alabama