Jefferson County /

Jefferson County, Alabama is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Alabama, with its county seat being located in Birmingham. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the population of Jefferson County was 662,047, but the July 2009 estimate is 665,027. Jefferson County is the principal and most populous county in the Birmingham metropolitan area. Jefferson County was established on December 13, 1819, by the Alabama Legislature. It was named in honor of Thomas Jefferson. The county is located in the north-central portion of the state, on the southmost edge of the Appalachian Mountains, in the center of the iron, coal and limestone mining belt of the Southern United States. Jefferson County is bordered by Blount County, Bibb County, St. Clair County, Shelby County, Tuscaloosa County, and Walker County, in Alabama. Jefferson County has a land area of about 1,119 square miles (2,900 km). Well-before Birmingham was even founded (in 1871), the county seat of Jefferson County was located at Carrollsville (1819–21) and Elyton (1821–73), and since 1873 it has been located in Birmingham, which was named for the English city of the same name in Warwickshire, which had long been a center of iron