Mobile, AL

Mobile ( moh-BEEL, French: [mɔbil] (listen)) is the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 United States Census. It is the fourth-most-populous city in Alabama, after Huntsville, Birmingham, and Montgomery.

Alabama’s only saltwater port, Mobile is located on the Mobile River at the head of Mobile Bay on the north-central Gulf Coast. The Port of Mobile has always played a key role in the economic health of the city, beginning with the settlement as an important trading center between the French colonists and Native Americans, down to its current role as the 12th-largest port in the United States.

Mobile is the principal municipality of the Mobile metropolitan area. This region of 430,197 residents is composed Mobile and Washington counties; it is the third-largest metropolitan statistical area in the state. Mobile is the largest city in the Mobile–Daphne−Fairhope Combined Statistical Area, with a total population of 661,964, the second largest such area fully in the state.

Mobile was founded in 1702 by the French as the first capital of Louisiana. During its first 100 years, Mobile was a colony of France, then Great Britain, and lastly Spain. Mobile became a part of the United States in 1813, with the annexation by President James Madison of West Florida from Spain.