Facts

Facts About Tuscaloosa

Demographics

The City of Tuscaloosa is located in West Alabama on the Black Warrior River, 57 miles southwest of Birmingham. Tuscaloosa is the county seat of 1,340 square mile Tuscaloosa County, which also includes the municipalities of Northport and Brookwood.

The City's 83,052 inhabitants (2006) represent 49% of Tuscaloosa County's 171,159 population. It is the home of the University of Alabama, Stillman College, Shelton State Community College, and several large hospitals.

Industrial Information

Tuscaloosa looms large in the educational and institutional infrastructure of Alabama. Its diversified industrial base is anchored by the Mercedes-Benz International assembly plant which commenced production in 1997. 

In 2005, Mercedes completed a $600 million expansion that doubled its work force to 4,000 employees and added another vehicle assembly line at the plant, now 3 million square feet. Today, this billion-dollar MBUSI facility plant produces three vehicles -- the second-generation M-Class, the R-Class Sports Tourer crossover vehicle and the GL-Class luxury sport utility vehicles.

This year (2009) Mercedes celebrated 12 years of production in the state.