There is growth in the suburbs, around the major campuses and at the beach. But most of this state is shrinking.

According to new population estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau, 45 of Alabama’s 67 counties lost population between 2017 and 2018.

Meanwhile, 22 counties grew over that span, led by Baldwin County. It grew by more than 2.5% in just a year, or more than 5,000 people. Baldwin has been growing rapidly this decade, growing at a faster rate and adding more total people than any other county since 2010. Shelby, Limestone, Lee and Baldwin all grew by more than 10 percent since the last full Census at 2010. Madison and Russell each grew by about 9 percent.

But many counties, especially those in the rural Black Belt, are losing residents rapidly. Dallas County lost more than 2 percent of its population between 2017 and 2018. Ten other counties lost more than 1 percent of their population in just a year.

Dallas County is the home of Selma, a historic civil rights city that Census data showed last year was the fastest-shrinking city in Alabama. Between 2010 and 2018, Dallas lost 12.57 percent of its population, or 5,510 people. It was one of four counties in the state to lose more than 10 percent of its total population in that span.

Macon, also in the Black Belt and home to Tuskegee, lost more than 14 percent of its population between 2010 and 2018 - the highest percentage loss in the state over that span.

Alabama is technically growing, but only in certain places. Here's how each county stacks up since 2010.Ramsey Archibald | rarchibald@al.com

As a whole, Alabama’s population was fairly stagnant between 2017 and 2018, growing by just 0.26 percent. The same is true of Jefferson, by far the state’s most populous county. Since 2010, it’s estimated to have added just 834 people, and actually saw the federal estimate dropped by 246 people between 2017 and 2018.

The Census also released estimates for metro areas today. The seven-county Birmingham-Hoover metro is the state’s largest urban area, with 1.15 million people, or more than a fifth of the state’s total population. That metro continues to grow slightly, fueled mainly by growth in Shelby and St. Clair counties. It is the 49th largest metro in the nation, just behind Hartford and just ahead of Buffalo.

The Census is expected to release city and town estimates next month.

Overall, the federal estimates show that Alabama’s rural areas, especially in the Black Belt, are drying up. Many of the problems in those areas have been heavily publicized, from rural hospital closures to the rise of hookworm in Lowndes County. But not all urban areas are flourishing either. Montgomery County is slowly losing population, as are Calhoun County, home to Anniston, and Etowah County, home to Gadsden. Mobile County remains flat, like Jefferson, seeing no significant growth or loss.

Meanwhile, most of Alabama’s real growth is limited to areas near larger cities, college towns and Baldwin County, where the growth is staggering, especially compared to the rest of the state. Baldwin is on pace to pass Montgomery as the state’s fourth most populous county within two years.

The majority of the growth in Alabama’s fastest-growing counties is coming domestically. Of Baldwin County’s 5,403 new people in 2018, 5,232 of them moved from somewhere else in the U.S. Meanwhile, Madison added 4,854 total people, with 3,374 of them moving in from the U.S.

Madison also saw a decent number of international migration. 531 people moved to Madison County from somewhere outside the U.S. in 2018, the second highest total in the state. Mobile County was number one in international migration with 568, though it saw the second-largest net loss of domestic migrants with -2,152.

Forty-three Alabama counties saw more deaths than births in 2018, according to the estimates.

How will Huntsville, and Baldwin County handle their growing populations? And what will happen to Alabama’s rural communities?

Both these fast-growing counties and the fast-shrinking ones will be interesting to watch going forward, but for different reasons.

Do you have an idea for a data story about Alabama? Email Ramsey Archibald at rarchibald@al.com, and follow him on Twitter @RamseyArchibald. For more videos and stories like this, follow Reckon by AL.com on Facebook and Twitter.