Alabama has one of the country's highest percentages of state-born residents. But, according to census figures, the number of those who were born outside of the state has nearly doubled in recent decades. There were nearly 3.3 million people living in the state in 1960 and 85 percent of them were Alabama natives. That was second only to Mississippi, which had 87 percent and Georgia was third with 81 percent.

Census estimates for 2006 show Alabama with a state-born population of 71 percent.

Most Southern states have seen their locally born numbers drop, partly because of economic opportunities that have drawn workers from elsewhere, as Alabama's auto manufacturing plants have done. Other factors include a general population movement toward the nation's Sunbelt; the arrival of Hispanics; and greater mobility in general.