Atlanta ranks 50th out of the top 50 metro areas when it comes to upward economic mobility.
That’s according to Harvard University’s Raj Chetty and his research group Opportunity Insights, which published an updated economic mobility study in 2024.
The initial economic mobility study came out in 2014. At the time, Atlanta’s rank was 49th, and Charlotte’s rank was 50th.
For Charlotte, that was a wake-up call. The city’s business, philanthropic, nonprofit and government leaders all galvanized around a common vision and mission to improve economic mobility in its region.
When Chetty presented the latest numbers in 2024, Charlotte’s ranking moved from 50th to 38th. And Charlotte leaders are not content being 38th. They hope to continue addressing the issues that impact upward economic mobility in their region.
And metro Atlanta? It went from 49th to 50th.
Wake up, Atlanta. This is not acceptable.
Atlanta’s dismal ranking was a central topic at the “State of Everything” convening organized by Neighborhood Nexus and held at the Junior League of Atlanta on Feb. 27. Panelist after panelist spoke during and after the program about the need for the Atlanta region to galvanize around a shared vision to address our lack of upward economic mobility.
“We can leverage this moment,” said Frank Fernandez, president and CEO of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta. “We need a shared North Star.”
Fernandez said it is important to get “the various pieces working together” in the Atlanta region. “We are not doing well,” he added. “One plus one is less than two.” Charlotte did have the engagement of its top business leaders, including Hugh McColl, the retired CEO of Bank of America.
Mike Carnathan, co-founder of Neighborhood Nexus and recently retired head of research for the Atlanta Regional Commission, would like to see metro Atlanta adopt a similar playbook as Charlotte.
“Let’s look at what Charlotte did,” Carnathan said. “They did lean into the fact that they were 50th with unprecedented community engagement by leaning in and understanding what their weaknesses were.”
In 2017, Charlotte launched a nonprofit, Leading on Opportunity, bringing together the region around a common purpose and connecting the dots so there can be traction on some of the most difficult social and economic issues facing metro areas.
“They are waking up every single day thinking about what they need to do,” Carnathan said. “We need somebody in Atlanta waking up every day thinking about systems changing. It’s hard. It requires a lot of community engagement and truly understanding the barriers of upward economic mobility.”
Janelle Williams, co-founder and CEO of the nonprofit Kindred Futures, said studies repeatedly show how the Atlanta region’s dividing line tends to be I-20, with the northern part of the region doing better than the south side.
“I’m so tired of sharing the same numbers year after year,” Williams said. “How are we preparing people to access the economy? It’s about collective work.”
The key is getting “stakeholders across multiple sectors to work together with a shared agenda,” she said. “We need a collective vision of what growth looks like and what it means to do it in a more inclusive way.”
Milton Little, president and CEO of United Way of Greater Atlanta, said that when the 2014 Chetty study came out, people in Charlotte got to work. He hopes Atlanta leaders will respond in a similar way.
“I commend the folks in Charlotte for embracing the challenge,” Little said. “United Way is committed to addressing the issue. We need a collective group. There’s an opportunity.”
Both Fernandez and Little pointed to initiatives that help address elements — the concerted effort to improve housing affordability in Atlanta, the regional Child Well Being Index that tracks how children are faring in the region and Learn for Life, which focuses on public education in the most urban five counties.
Those effort have not improved Atlanta’s upward economic mobility rankings, though.
The Chetty research study, “Changing Opportunity: Sociological Mechanisms Underlying Growing Class Gaps and Shrinking Race Gaps in Economic Mobility,” used federal census data and tax returns to track people born in 1978 and 1992, tracking their income at 27 years old.
“A commitment to a long-term concerted action is key,” said Fernandez, adding it is important to have key stakeholders and champions across multiple sectors. “Atlanta as a region is too fragmented.”
Four entities in Atlanta have a regional mandate — the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, United Way of Greater Atlanta, the Atlanta Regional Commission and the Metro Atlanta Chamber. They have worked together with Learn for Life, but there could be broader scope to their collaboration.
“Those four civic institutions can definitely play a role in these regionwide issues,” Fernandez said. “I think we can help catalyze how you can create a shared understanding, a shared agenda and shared accountability around upward economic mobility.”
Kathryn Lawler, CEO of Saint Joseph’s Health System and Mercy Care, said entities have worked together. “It’s about what they’re going to do next, taking one more step to deeper engagement.”
Carnathan, though, said Atlanta has one advantage.
“Because Atlanta has Neighborhood Nexus, we are positioned to quickly get an initiative off the ground and be able to measure results,” he said.
Still, the work will be hard. Williams agreed, describing the effort as a marathon, but a need that has the urgency of now.
“Pretty much everybody working in social, political and economic sectors can see a role they can play in the upward economic mobility space, “Carnathan said. “It has to be both top-down and bottom-up. We have pieces of it. But we don’t have that connective tissue piece. That’s what we really need in Atlanta, and that will drive us to the North Star.”
From the Raj Chetty executive summary of the 2024 Study on economic mobility:
“Charlotte, N.C. and Atlanta, Ga. — two rapidly growing cities in the Southeast — both had low levels of mobility for children born in 1978, particularly for Black children from low-income families. By 1992, mobility improved substantially in Charlotte, nearly reaching the national average due to improved outcomes for low-income Black residents and stable outcomes for low-income white residents. In contrast, mobility remained low in Atlanta for both groups.”
This article makes little sense. The improvement in Charlotte was due mostly to factors that changed between what happened to children born in 1978 and those born in 1992, so mostly about changes between the 1980s/1990s and the 1990s/2000s. Yet it discusses things Charlotte did 20 years after the latter period!
If *Charlotte* (or the State of North Carolina or some other factor) changed and it affected this outcome, it did so a long time ago, and not it the last 10-15 years.
I call on the leaders of Atlanta’s corporations and educational institutions to join the non-profit community in closing the wealth gap in our city. It is unacceptable to have so many neighborhoods of intractable poverty. We need a collective will and – sadly – we had a Buckhead city movement. We can do better.
Free handouts won’t fix the problem. It will only serve to widen the gap. Atlanta will never fix this problem. Too much drugs and gangs in every community south of 20 dragging people down. Opportunities don’t evolve in that environment.
Readers and Followers: If the publisher and editor has to go this far in the Negative, then please go ahead and protect yourself, and assets. We’re in for a quite a Year or two to see where change will lead us. Best, JG/Jeremy C. Garlington/www.povblogger.blogspot.com
I may be missing something, but feel a revisit and drill-down on the Opportunity Atlas data may be worth pursuing … perhaps we’ll do some work on this ourselves here at Site Selection magazine. Exploring the map shows a number of important counties (including Gwinnett, Rockdale, DeKalb, Douglas and Forsyth) with “insufficient data.” Would this not skew the economic mobility data for the metro area as a whole tremendously? Meanwhile, Fulton County alone shows great improvement. Thanks as always for your team’s civic journalism, Maria.
Yeah…two numbers don’t mean much without understanding the connection. Intuitively we think about all of the college graduates that have moved here for the Fin-Tech and other professional jobs. The entrepreneurs who moved to Atlanta to start their business. $26k is only $13/hr for 2,000 hours. Yeah…there’s a skew in the demographics somewhere.
“We need a shared North Star.” Thanks Frank. “We don’t have that connective tissue piece.” Yes Mike. Meanwhile, half of New York and California are still moving here alongside the crush of suburb illegals.
Thanks to Maria Saporta for calling attention to this issue. Education creates opportunities. Let’s work together to improve STEM education!
Yes!!! Thank you.
Bring the big four banks back to Atlanta!!! They have all run to Charlotte and my bank has almost completely stopped hiring for new jobs in Atlanta. They have several offices around Atlanta but because they no longer invest in Atlanta most of us are not allowed to sit there.
I own a home in the Atlanta metro but have to report to the Charlotte office 3 days a week. And sorry but no matter how much money the big 4 banks pump into Charlotte it is still not better than Atlanta.
Low wages, high housing and transportation costs are 3 of the biggest factors.
Georgia is too pro-business and anti-people and workers.
Shocker.
This is the worst run city in the country. And that’s saying something. Worse than Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit.
C’mon. Someone’s got to tell the truth. I wouldn’t buy a municipal bond from APS, City of Atlanta, DeKalb or Fulton Co if you paid ME. Worthless in 2 years.