The Rocket City is booming. The Huntsville metro area gained nearly 6,000 people through domestic and foreign migration between 2017 and 2018. That equates to 112 new people moving to the area per week - the highest rate of any metro in Alabama.

Thanks to losses from people moving out of state, Alabama as a whole saw a net gain of just 9,000 people from migration during that same span. And in many of the other large metros most of the gains come from foreign migration.

Huntsville metro, which includes Madison and Limestone counties, added nearly 33,000 more people from net migration since 2010.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Huntsville metro is one of just two Alabama metros to add more than 100 people per week between 2017 and 2018. The other was Daphne-Fairhope-Foley metro, which includes all of Baldwin County, which is the state’s fastest-growing county.

Daphne-Fairhope-Foley added around 103 people per week over that time span, or 5,350 from 2017 to 2018, according to recent U.S. Census estimates for metropolitan areas.

How many people are moving to or from each Alabama metro per week?

In Alabama, there’s a big gap before reaching third place. Auburn-Opelika added around 30 people per week between 2017 and 2018. The Columbus, Georgia, metro area, which includes Russell County in eastern Alabama, grew by 19 people per week.

Birmingham-Hoover, by far the state’s largest metro, added a net of just 517 new arrivals, or around 10 a week.

Without foreign migration, Birmingham would have seen a net loss. The Magic City saw a net gain of nearly 700 people who moved there from outside the U.S, the largest gain of foreign migrants in Alabama.

But like several other Alabama metros, Birmingham saw a net loss from domestic migration, meaning people who moved in from or moved away to somewhere else in the United States.

The Huntsville and Daphne-Fairhope-Foley metro areas are far out in front in terms of domestic migration. (Graphic by Ramsey Archibald)

The biggest losers were Montgomery and Mobile. Montgomery has seen a small but steady influx of foreign migrants since 2010, but has had large domestic losses over that time. The Montgomery metropolitan area, which includes four counties, has seen a net loss of nearly 16,000 people since 2010.

Both Montgomery and Mobile experienced a net loss of more than 30 people per week between 2017 and 2018.

Metro Mobile, which is just the one county, saw significant gains from foreign migration, which helped offset some of the losses to people moving elsewhere in the United States.

Do you have an idea for a data story about Alabama? Email Ramsey Archibald at rarchibald@al.com, and follow him on Twitter @RamseyArchibald.