Our workforce, jobs, infrastructure, and institutions operate regionally, while tax base, boundaries, investment patterns, and infrastructure funding still function at smaller, misaligned scales.
Our future economic competitiveness depends on our understanding of how deeply connected our region is.
Every day, people in the Greater Birmingham Region cross city and county lines for work, healthcare, education, shopping, and daily life. Goods move by truck, rail, and air across the region and beyond. Because the economy already operates at a regional scale, job creation, capital investment, and talent retention are most effective when approached regionally and aligned with the workforce.
The BBA is committed to convening leaders and advancing this work as the region’s economic development organization.
Don’t take our word for it. The below, third-party data shows how the region already works and where alignment can unlock stronger growth.
Cities, Counties and Jurisdictions are Economically Interdependent.
The Region Depends on the City for:
- Job Density
- Economic Clustering
- Anchor Institutions
- Civic & Government Centers
- Cultural & Event Infrastructure
The City Depends on the Region for:
- Regional Workforce
- County & Metro Industry Network
- Regional Transportation Systems
- Sales and Occupational Tax
The County Depends On:
- Regional Workforce
- Anchor Institutions
- City and State Infrastructure
- City Job Density & Core Economy
The Region Depends on the County for:
- Regional Fiscal Stability
- Industry and Manufacturing Hubs
- Housing and Suburban Growth
- Retail and Commercial Corridors
Region Rely on Jurisdictions For:
- Local Government and Public Services
- Housing & Neighborhoods
- Employment Centers
- The Regional Tax Base
What's Shaping Our Shared Economic Future?
- A More Regionally Dispersed Workforce
- Increasing Dependency on Regional Institutions
- Growing Misalignment Between Infrastructure Cost and Tax Base
- Intensifying Competition Among Metros
- A Regional Economy that Outgrew it's Municipal-era Systems
Through Accelerate 2030, we can market the region as one labor shed, align workforce and talent efforts, better support small businesses that strengthen regional supply chain and focus on sites and infrastructure that matter regionally.
We're turning alignment into action, not control. Economies that operate at a regional scale and regions that coordinate consistently outperform those that do not every time.
The BBA is here to provide that roadmap and lead the direction through Accelerate 2030.
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