Metro Atlanta growing, but at rates not seen since grandpa's day

By Christopher Quinn

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Metro Atlanta's population is still growing, but the rate in the last two years is the lowest since the 1950s, according to the Atlanta Regional Commission.

The 10-county region added only 56,000 new residents in the two-year period ending April 1, the organization estimates. Compare that to 2000 to 2007, when the region added more than 77,000 new residents a year.

The drop is one more thing to blame on the economy, said Mike Alexander, chief of ARC's research division.

"There is still some growth there," he said.

But it is not coming in numbers that would indicate the economy is picking up steam and creating jobs. Much of the region's economy was dependent on construction and businesses related to construction and new housing, such as carpet manufacturers. Those businesses are still hurting and are not hiring, he said.

“The national recession and its effect on people's ability to move for new jobs or better opportunities really showed up for the first time in last year’s estimates,” he said. “And since the economy has not shown much recovery, neither has our growth pattern.”

An earlier ARC study showed migration from states that had hot housing markets before the crash – California, New York and Florida – has largely evaporated.

Nearly 25 percent of the latest year's growth came to Atlanta. The city added 7,800 residents in the year ending April 1.But that's down from the 10,000 new residents a year the city averaged earlier in the decade. Atlanta lost population in the 1970s and 1980s. A turnaround began in the 1990s and picked up speed in this century.

The ARC has not yet worked out county-by-county population estimates.

The 10-county Atlanta region includes Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale.

It is now home to 4,155,800 people, a figure that's larger than the populations in 24 states.

See more at www.atlantaregional.com/info-center/arc-newsletters/regional-snapshots.