By Paul Donsky
Metro Atlanta grew at a relatively healthy clip in in the year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, adding nearly 64,000 people to bring the 10-county region’s total population to 4.7 million.
That’s according to the latest population estimates from the Atlanta Regional Commission. There’s a lot of data to parse, so let’s delve into the numbers.
How Does This Year’s Growth Stack up to Recent Trends?
Population growth is down slightly from the year before, reflecting a modest cooling in the local job market. The 1.37% population increase in 2019-20 compares to 1.59% in 2018-19.
Taking a step back, this year’s population growth was a little better than average over the past decade. The 2010s began amid the fallout of the Great Recession, which dampened growth for a number of years in metro Atlanta and across the country.
Overall, the 10-county region added 585,000 people in the past decade – the equivalent of all of metro Chattanooga. Learn more.
