State of Alabama

Nickname(s): Yellowhammer State; Heart of Dixie; Cotton State

Audemus jura nostra defendere (Latin "We Dare To Defend Our Rights" or "We Dare To Maintain Our Rights") is the state motto

Official language(s) English

Alabama ( i /ˌæləˈbæmə/) is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States of America. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland waterways. The state ranks 23rd in population with 4.7 million residents in 2009.[4]

The word Alabama is believed to have originated from the Choctaw language[8] and was later adopted by the Alabama tribe as their name.

the word comes from the Choctaw alba (meaning "plants" or "weeds") and amo (meaning "to cut", "to trim", or "to gather").

GeographyAlabama is the thirtieth largest state in the United States with 52,423 square miles (135,775 km2) of total area: 3.19% of the area is water, making Alabama twenty-third in the amount of surface water, also giving it the second largest inland waterway system in the United States.[32] About three-fifths of the land area is a gentle plain with a general descent towards the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. The North Alabama region is mostly mountainous, with the Tennessee River cutting a large valley creating numerous creeks, streams, rivers, mountains, and lakes.

A 5-mile (8 km)-wide meteorite impact crater is located in Elmore County, just north of Montgomery. This is the Wetumpka crater, which is the site of "Alabama's greatest natural disaster".[38] A 1,000-foot (300 m)-wide meteorite hit the area about 80 million years ago.

Population

Alabama has an estimated population of 4,599,030

Alabama had 108,000 foreign-born

Alabama has a larger percentage of tobacco smokers than the national average

The largest reported ancestry groups in Alabama: African American (26.0%), English (23.6%), Irish (7.7%), German (5.7%), and Scots-Irish

As of 2000, 96.7% of Alabama residents age 5 and older speak English at home and 2.2% speak Spanish

Historically, African Americans were brought to Alabama as slaves, in greatest numbers in the cotton-producing plantation region known as the Black Belt. This region remains predominantly African American, where many freedmen settled to work at agriculture after the Civil War.

Law and governmentThe foundational document for Alabama's government is the Alabama Constitution, which was ratified in 1901.

Alabama is divided into three equal branches: The legislative branch is the Alabama Legislature,

The executive branch is responsible for the execution and oversight of laws. It is headed by the Governor of Alabama.

The judicial branch

The highest court is the Supreme Court of Alabama.

Robert J. Bentley

Alabama has 67 counties. Each county has its own elected legislative branch, usually called the County Commission, which usually also has executive authority in the county.

Alabama is an alcoholic beverage control state; the government holds a monopoly on the sale of alcohol.