Shelby County has had more homes built than any other county over the past five years in the Birmingham area &8212; by a long shot.

U.S. Census estimates released Monday showed Shelby County with a 20.5 percent increase of homes built since April of 2005.

Jefferson, Alabama&8217;s largest county, only saw an increase of 4.7 percent.

Since 2000, newcomers to Shelby County have built 12,155 homes &8212; compared to the 13,512 homes constructed in Jefferson.

Shelby County manager of development services Ray Hamilton said the census number showed signs that the county is healthy.

&8220;Obviously people want to be here,&8221; Hamilton said. &8220;Our homebuilding industry is a large supplier of economic health for Shelby County.&8221;

Shelby still remains well behind Jefferson in overall population, with 171,000 residents compared to 657,000.

Hamilton said the numbers are a credit to the work of various county offices working to bring resident to the county.

&8220;For the department of development services and the planning commission this is a proud thing to see,&8221; he said.

Bibb and Chilton County saw increases of 2.7 and 2.5 percent while Blount went up by 3.9 percent