Atlanta Forward scorecards
The AJC selected nine metro areas across the country with which metro Atlanta competes for business and prestige to get an idea of where Atlanta stands as it emerges from the worst economic downturn of our lifetimes. The score cards are a compilation of 35 measures across 10 categories for the 10 regions.
The AJC assigned each region a score from one to 10 on each measure and totaled the measures to come up with a score for each category. Some categories received greater weight than others when compiling the scores for the final rankings. The top score was curved to 100.
During the coming week, the scores between Atlanta and the other cities will be broken down into detail to accompany stories. Click on an icon below to look at released scorecards. Click on links on the scorecards to read the corresponding stories. Use the gray bars to navigate between the scorecards.
Click here to learn more about the Atlanta Forward series.
Overall rankings
100
Washington | Ranked highly in: Economic conditions (1)*, transit (1)*, business climate, universities
Notes: You can’t fight the government, or the enormous business machine that has grown up around it. Washington is first in general economic conditions and first in transit, if not necessarily first in the hearts of its countrymen and women.
95
Boston | Ranked highly in: k-12 (1)*, universities (1)*, transit, business climate
Notes: Boston has one of the greatest concentrations of top-quality universities in the world. Massachusetts taxpayers also spend heavily on k-12 education, which likely accounts for the state’s high graduation rate (83 percent in Massachusetts vs. 68 in Georgia).
92
Dallas | Ranked highly in: Airport, transit, housing, population (1)*
Notes: The Big D has a million more people than metro Atlanta has, and while Atlanta has suffered miserably through the economic wreckage of the 2000s, Dallas has turned into a job factory. Excellent airport, too, though not as good as ours.
91
Atlanta | Ranked highly in: Airport (1)*, k-12, universities, weather
Notes: OK, we’ll not talk about the weather right now. But we also have the world’s busiest airport, some top-tier universities and, in several of our suburbs, some very good schools. Perhaps surprisingly, metro Atlanta schools looked very good compared with schools in the other metros.
89
Austin | Ranked highly in: Business climate (1)*, economic conditions, traffic, housing, weather
Notes: A great university, an amazing music scene, a surfeit of bright young people and high-tech companies everywhere you look: Austin is big business in a small venue. Atlanta’s numbers on housing and jobs can make you cry; Austin’s can make you jealous.
81
Denver | Ranked highly in: Airport, k-12, economic conditions
Notes: The Mile High City is distinguished by its airport and, of course, by its mile-high-ness. Unemployment never made it into double digits in metro Denver, and the region is expected to return to peak employment a full year before Atlanta does.
77
Raleigh | Ranked highly in: Traffic (1)*, economic conditions, universities, housing
Notes: The Research Triangle — and the three excellent universities at its points — has helped to set Raleigh on a path to prosperity. And, at least for now, the North Carolina capital is the easiest commute of all the regions we examined.
75
Nashville | Ranked highly in: Housing, traffic, weather
Notes: Music City showed relatively strong job growth during the "lost decade" of 2001-10, particularly when compared with Atlanta. And where median household income in Atlanta was anemic during the past five years, Nashville posted a 12 percent gain.
72
Charlotte | Ranked highly in: Traffic, weather
Notes: Charlotte’s unemployment rate hit double digits in 2009 and has remained there (it hit 11.2 percent in June). The Queen City also has struggled with high rates of foreclosures and, it follows, vacant houses. And the region’s poverty rate surpassed Atlanta’s in 2009.
57
Birmingham | Ranked highly in: Weather (1)*
Notes: Barely beat out Atlanta for best weather of the lot. Unfortunately it shared several other things with the ATL: net job losses over 10 years, a relatively high metro poverty rate, slow growth in median household income since 2000 and falling home values.
* indicates a top ranking in the given category.
Atlanta vs. Dallas
Airports
100
Atlanta
90
Dallas
DFW has seven runways compared with Hartsfield-Jackson's five, and
Dallas-Fort Worth is home to two big domestic airlines, where Atlanta is
home to one. However, on the measure that counts -- number of flights --
Atlanta leads.
- Total flights: Dallas had 308,138 total flights in 2010 compared with Atlanta's 458,188.
Economy
72
Atlanta
81
Dallas
This category sampled such measures as unemployment, poverty rates, gross metropolitan product and median household income growth over 10 years.
- GMP: Dallas ranks No. 6 nationally with $377 billion; Atlanta is 10th with $271 billion.
- Unemployment rate as of April for Atlanta was 9.7%, Dallas was 7.7%.
Business
97
Atlanta
97
Dallas
Atlanta has more broadband capacity, Dallas has corporate and personal income tax rates that any business would love.
- State income tax for corporations in Georgia is 6%, and 1 to 6% for individuals. Texas: no state income tax for either.
- Fortune 500 headquarters: Dallas, 20; Atlanta, 12.
Traffic
87
Atlanta
88
Dallas
You can't put 5 million or 6 million people in a metro area, give most of them cars and not have terrible traffic. Dallas' traffic is only slightly less terrible than Atlanta's.
- Hours wasted in traffic per commuter per year, 2010: Dallas, 48; Atlanta, 44.
- Average commuting times in minutes: Atlanta, 30.1; Dallas, 26.1.
Housing
74
Atlanta
93
Dallas
Atlanta ranked dead last among the 10 metros on a combination of foreclosure rates, vacant homes, sales prices and market forecasts.
- Home sale prices: The average price in Dallas last year was $143,800, a 3.6% fall from 2008. In Atlanta, the average home sold for $114,800 in 2010, a 23.2% drop.
- Market forecast: Builder magazine ranked the 20 healthiest housing markets for 2011. Dallas was 12; Atlanta wasn't ranked.
Higher Education
100
Boston
Higher ed central: Harvard, MIT, BU, BC, Tufts, Northeastern, Brandeis, Wellesley, etc. With at least 33 schools with more than 1,000 undergraduates each, one of the great centers of higher learning.
97
Washington
Still top-drawer: Georgetown, George Washington, George Mason and some great schools not called George, including Howard, the University of Maryland, Marymount and others.
94
Atlanta
Higher ed South: Combination of high-quality public institutions and first-rate private ones: Georgia Tech, Emory, Morehouse, Spelman, Georgia State, Agnes Scott and the big dog just down the road.
92
Raleigh
The isosceles triangle formed by Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State makes this tobacco capital a higher-learning capital as well. Home to the Research Triangle and scores of high-tech companies.
88
Denver
The CU Buffaloes can wander down the road from the University of Colorado in Boulder to the University of Colorado in Denver. The private University of Denver adds a prestige and quality.
85
Charlotte
It's a bigger, more interesting town than Raleigh, but it doesn't quite reach the higher ed stratosphere of the capital. Much of the quality resides at UNC-Charlotte, Davidson and Belmont Abbey.
82
Austin
With nearly 50,000 students and an enormous endowment, the University of Texas helps to define Austin. Texas is ranked No. 45 on the U.S. News best list, behind No. 35 Georgia Tech and No. 20 Emory.
81
Nashville
Vanderbilt is the class act in town (rated No. 17 by U.S. News). Middle Tennessee State in Murfreesboro is celebrating its centennial this year and promoting its aerospace and recording industry programs.
79
Dallas
Among its many fine attributes is a very good airport, and that’s where many Dallas kids start their search for college. To be as big as it is, Dallas is a bit of a higher-ed desert. (No offense, SMU.)
77
Birmingham
It is a small-time player with a big-noise school in the University of Alabama at Birmingham. UAB, known for its med school, says it's No. 31 nationally for federal research funding.
Young and Restless
100
Boston
More than half of metro Boston's 344,000 people between 25 and 34 has a bachelor's degree or higher, making its "young and restless" class the best-educated of the 10 metros studied. Came in No. 3 on microbreweries/brewpubs per capita and picked up bonus points for concerts.
99
Denver
Ties with Washington D.C. for the lowest unemployment (3.5 percent) among the 25-34 age group with college degrees. And in that age group, Denver blows everybody else away when it comes to microbreweries per capita: 8,066 people per establishment; No. 2 Raleigh has 17,478.
98
Washington
The D.C. metro had the lowest unemployment rate among educated folk ages 25-34, and finished second behind Boston on the age cohort's educational attainment. As did Denver and Boston, also scored bonus points for hosting both the Kings of Leon and 30 Seconds to Mars in 2011.
97
Austin
For the young and educated set, Austin is among the most competitive metros in the U.S. Four in 10 of residents 25-34 have bachelor's degrees or higher. Austin also scored highly for low unemployment and microbreweries per capita, and nailed the bonus points for the Kings of Leon and 30 Seconds to Mars concerts.
88
Raleigh
One and five people in metro Raleigh is in the 25-34 age group, and nearly half of them have college degrees. Raleigh did have a 30 Seconds to Mars concert this year but failed to attract the Kings of Leon. The Carolina capital is No. 2 on microbreweries per capita.
87
Nashville
Our neighbor to the north had slightly higher educational attainment in the age group than Atlanta did. Finished on top (with Boston) on ManpowerGroup's survey of hiring expectations in the third quarter 2011, but didn't attract either of the bands and was kind of flat on the beer scene.
85
Atlanta
We're No. 7! Metro Atlanta ranks very low (eight out of 10) on the educational attainment of this age group: 35 percent have a bachelor's or higher, compared with 54 percent in Boston and 47 percent in Raleigh. Unemployment among college-educated young people was a relatively high 5.1 percent.
82
Charlotte
The 25-34 group is better educated in Charlotte than in Atlanta, but not by much. Charlotte also had the highest unemployment rate among the metros for 25-34s with college degrees (7.1 percent). And it's a relative desert when it comes to microbrews.
82
Birmingham
Birmingham hit near bottom on the educational attainment question. Its unemployment rate for the 25-34 cohort was not bad (4 percent), but it's a nearly microbrew-free zone, and neither the Kings of Leon nor 30 Seconds to Mars didn't make it to the Magic City.
79
Dallas
Dallas probably does better than its lousy numbers suggest, since its the most populous metro of the 10 we studied. But it totally tanked on educational attainment of the 25-34 group (28 percent — almost half of Boston's rate), has a relatively poor hiring outlook for the third quarter and was dead last on the beer measure.
Business climate
100
Denver
Low corporate income tax, a modest "deal-closing fund" provided by Colorado taxpayers to attract new business, and a good airport put the Mile High City on top of this category.
99
Atlanta
A deal-closing fund was set up fairly recently in Georgia, unionization rates are low, education levels are in the middle of the 10 metros, and ATL has the busiest airport.
98
Raleigh
Even lower rates of unionization than Georgia's, a deal-closing fund and very high education levels (second out of 10) put Raleigh near the top of this heap.
97
Austin
Texas does not have a corporate income tax, and it operates the nation's biggest deal-closing funds. Austin, meanwhile, has a relatively high rate of people older than 25 with college degrees (third out of the 10 metros).
97
Dallas
Dallas also gets a share of Texas' deal-closing fund, has no corporate income tax and has a fine airport. But Dallas nearly comes undone on education: 10th of 10 on high school grads, ninth of 10 on college degrees.
93
Washington
Relatively high level of unionization (10.5 percent of workers, compared with Atlanta's 5 percent) and the highest corporate income taxes of the 10 metros. Tops in percentage of college grads.
92
Charlotte
North Carolina has a large deal-closing fund and one of the lowest corporate income tax rates. Charlotte has a medium-OK airport and low unionization, but poor educational attainment levels.
89
Boston
Most unionized of the 10 metros, high corporate income taxes. Nearly matches Washington on educational attainment. Has the best hiring outlook for third quarter 2011 in the nation.
86
Nashville
Low rates of unionization but also low rates of college degrees among people older than 25 (ranks eighth of 10). Airport ranked sixth among the 10 metros.
73
Birmingham
Lags behind the others on most key indicators, including low rates of high school diplomas (ninth of 10) and college degrees (10th of 10). Alabama has a competitive corporate tax rate, but a relatively high percentage of union workers.
Preparing for the next wave
Some of the seeds of a technology-based economy are good higher education, innovation, broadband adoption and local talent already in place.
100
Boston
Leads on colleges with at least 1,000 undergrads. Second for its per-capita rate of people working in engineering, life/physical/social sciences and computers/mathematics fields.
97
Washington
Scores highly on colleges and bests even Boston on educational attainment in the 25-34 age group. No. 3 of 10 on broadband adoption, and bonus points for having 30-plus Starbucks within city limits.
92
Raleigh
Leads the nation in broadband adoption, according to Forbes. North Carolina came in third of 10 in the number of patents issued to people and companies there from 2006 to 2010.
89
Denver
In the top three of 10 for number of colleges, broadband adoption and per capita rate of people working in engineering, life/phyiscal/social sciences and computers/mathematics fields.
87
Austin
Texas was tops in numbers of patents issued in the past five years, and Austin was near the top for people working in the high-tech fields we measured. Nailed the Starbucks bonus points, too.
85
Atlanta
A middle-B performance, well ahead of most Southern cities but sixth of 10 in this comparison. No. 2 on broadband adoption, ties with Denver for number of colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates.
81
Charlotte
Landed at or near the middle on most of our measures, including educational attainment of 25-34 age group. Was No. 16 (and No. 5 in this group) on Forbes top 20 broadband adoption list.
79
Dallas
Finished in the middle in per-capita rate of people working in the three tech fields we measured. Didn't break into the top 20 on broadband. Finished last on educational attainment of 25-34 age group.
69
Nashville
Was in the bottom five in every category we measured for this scorecard. Was dead last in people working in the three high-tech fields, Fourth of 10 on educational attainment of 25-34s.
65
Birmingham
Finished ninth of 10 in educational attainment, number of colleges, per capita rate of people in the three tech fields, and patents issued in the state 2006-2010.
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