Trailing only Dallas and Houston, Atlanta has been the third-fastest growing metro region in the country since 2015. A new report from the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) shows this is likely to continue. The region added nearly 65,000 residents in the past year, or 1.3%. The 11-county region is now home to some 5.1 million, according to the ARC.
“We are clearly recovering from the initial shock of the pandemic in 2020,” said Anna Roach, Executive Director of ARC. “These population gains are encouraging, and they are a testament to the quality of life metro Atlanta offers. As we look to the future, we must continue to work on housing affordability, access to transit, transportation infrastructure, and other critical issues so that we foster a region where everyone thrives.”
This year’s increase was slightly higher than last year, expected because of the freezing effect of the pandemic. Gwinnett added the most of any county, with more than 13,400 residents, followed by Fulton with 11,200, and Cobb and Cherokee counties both right around 6,900. The City of Atlanta added 5,000 residents over the last year, another increase of the pandemic year’s 3,200.
The official U.S. Census estimate from last year pegged the city’s total at 496,461, which would make this past year’s growth pushing the city past the 500,000 mark. The city added a remarkable 68,000 people from 2010-2020, making it the highest population ever for the city, going beyond the previous high of 495,000 in 1970, before the explosion of the suburbs saw a decrease of nearly 100,000 over the twenty years from 1970-1990.
Building permits are one of the biggest factors for the estimates. Following the slowdown of the pandemic, new permits have seen a strong recovery over the last year and this also means a boost to job recovery. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, metro Atlanta had the second highest rate of job growth in the nation among large metro areas at 6.7%. There were more than 27,000 new residential building permits issued in the ARC 11-county region last year, an increase over 4,500 compared to the year before.
The outlook continues to be positive far out into the future for metro Atlanta. Granted, a lot can happen over the course of 25 years, but the ARC projects growth to continue and for the region to add 3.5 million residents by 2050, with a total population of 9 million by that time. That would be roughly adding all the people who have moved to the region over the last 30 years, again, meaning the region would have tripled in population over a 60 year period.
JLL, a real estate and investment firm, issued a report last year looking at the City of Atlanta population and, among many analyses, broke down the origin locations of those that moved to Atlanta since 2015. Perhaps unsurprisingly, New York topped the list by far, with more than double of all other origin locations besides Miami. Something to remember the next time you hear far too many people cheering for New York teams at a Braves or Hawks game.
