Overall, Georgia is the 8th most rapidly growing state (USA. com). With a growth rate of nearly 10% – adding 900,000 residents between 2010 and 2019 – the State of Georgia itself has grown much more rapidly than the nation’s 6% rate (www.cen sus.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2020/pop-estimates-county-metro.html). Furthermore, about two-thirds of that growth has come from the Atlanta Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).
I’ve been watching Atlanta grow for many years. When I first started working for the First National Bank downtown in 1967, it was little more than a really big small town. I-75/85 was just two lanes running through the middle of that town. (But even then, the expressway was packed, and we were told by Gov. Maddox that it would get better).
With visionary leadership, the Atlanta area was poised to grow. And, unsurprisingly, it has. With over 6 million residents, the Atlanta MSA is now 9th in size in the nation. I already knew that Atlanta was one of the larger MSAs. What I did not know was how rapidly it’s growing compared to other large cities.
The Atlanta Metropolitan area is now 4th nationally in regard to most numeric growth. The greater Atlanta MSA alone added over 700,000 people between 2010 and 2019. Only Dallas, Houston and Phoenix are adding residents more quickly.
On a more local level, Georgia’s top growth counties from 2010-2019 are Forsyth (92%); Paulding (78%) and Henry (75%). All of the top five most rapidly growing counties in the state are near Atlanta (USA.com).
And, with tremendous growth has come both opportunities and problems. The Atlanta Regional Council (ARC), a non-profit multi-county regional planning group, looks at growth issues strategically. Here’s just some of what it has found as part of its 2019 “Atlanta Speaks” survey:
•Transportation is still our region’s most pressing issue, with 28% of residents identifying it as our biggest problem;
•Crime was our second biggest problem (18%);
•Education was third (10%).
As for addressing these problems, findings were very interesting. Only 31% of Metro citizens thought local government was responsive (good or excellent) to their needs. Henry was much lower, with only 24% satisfied.
Only 46% of Metro residents were willing to pay more taxes to alleviate transportation problems by expanding bus and rail services. The Henry figure was even less, 40%.
As for crime, 62% of Metro residents rated their area as excellent or good, as opposed to only 51% of black residents. In Henry, 59% of citizens were in the good/excellent categories.
This survey was taken pre-pandemic, so most Metro respondents were positive about the economy and their own personal job situation. However, over a fourth of those surveyed also indicated that if they had an emergency costing $400, they would be in financial trouble and have to borrow money, pawn items or just not pay the bill. One can expect that with the job losses caused by the pandemic, these individuals are now hurting financially. Notably, the figure was much higher for Henry County, 33%.
Henry County residents were also considerably more pessimistic than Metro residents in general with only 23% believing things would be better in 3-4 years – and 36% thinking that they would be worse. Figures for Metro overall were much more optimistic, 30% believing things would be better and 26% worse.
There are many more interesting areas analyzed by the Atlanta Speaks report. It can be found at https://cdn.atlantaregional.org/wp-content/uploads/2019-metro-atlanta-speaks-report-ksu.pdf.
