Posted on: January 29, 2021
The 100 Metros Dashboard, created by Neighborhood Nexus and the Atlanta Regional Commission, is chock-full of information about the 29-county Atlanta Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and how it compares to the 100 most populous metros around the country. Newly updated with 2019 (and in some cases 2020) data covering demographics, housing, education, health, employment, economic development and commuting patterns, the dashboard provides a snapshot of community conditions in MSAs around the country.
One of the most common questions we field is just how many people live in the Atlanta MSA. Below, we can see that we rank #9 in population size, with 6.02 million people calling the 29-county Atlanta metro home.
Another favorite data point is just how fast Atlanta’s growing (external link) when compared to other metros in the country. Below , we can see that in sheer numbers, we had the fourth largest population gain in the country between 2010 and 2019, adding more than 700,000 people.
While we'd never say that's not a lot of people, the chart below shows that when we examine this number as a rate of change, we don't even break the top-10. In other words, 700 thousand people is a lot, but we already started out with a lot of people, so our rate of change (which was a 13 percent increase) didn't come close to the growth rates we see in the 10 metros in the chart on the right.
The map below shows how our 13 percent change in residents compares to other metros around the country. Coming in at 25th, we certainly can't boast the fastest growth rate, but we're still in the top quartile.
