Census data shows Georgia continues to diversify

Georgia’s population has grown by more than a half million people in the past five years, with nonwhite residents accounting for all of the net growth, signaling an increasingly diverse state.

New estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau released Thursday found that more than 40% of the new residents between 2020 and 2025 are Hispanic. Another 33% are Black and 20% are Asian, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of the data.

During the same period, the state lost about 25,000 white non-Hispanic residents. Georgia is now home to about an equal number of white and nonwhite residents — about 52% are nonwhite.

Three of those changes seen in the Georgia data are part of larger national trends, according to the Census Bureau: the Hispanic population growing the fastest in terms of pure numbers; the Asian population growing the fastest in terms of percentage; and the white, non-Hispanic population slightly shrinking.

Black and Asian growth clusters in metro Atlanta’s suburbs

Nearly three-quarters of the Black population growth occurred in 10 counties, primarily in Atlanta’s southern suburbs. Henry County’s Black population increased by more than 30,000 residents in the five-year period, the largest increase statewide.

The census found that Asian residents make up the fastest-growing group in the state. More than three-quarters of that growth occurred in just 10 counties, mostly along Atlanta’s northern suburbs, led by Gwinnett and Forsyth counties.

Gwinnett County continued to play an outsized role in Georgia’s diversification, the numbers show. The county gained nearly 100,000 minority residents in the past five years of data while losing nearly 35,000 white non-Hispanics.

Latino growth is more spread out across Georgia

Hispanic population growth was far more dispersed than that of the Black and Asian populations. The 10 counties with the largest Latino population growth accounted for slightly less than half of the statewide Hispanic growth.

The larger Latino population additions were concentrated in counties, including Hall and Whitfield, that already had the state’s largest Latino communities and have significant poultry processing and other agricultural operations.

More counties are becoming majority-minority

Nearly 90% of Forsyth County’s growth in the past five years was fueled by Asian residents, according to the data.

The county where a white majority drove out its entire Black population in 1912 will become majority-nonwhite in five years if its population change continues at the same rate as it did in 2024-25, the AJC analysis found.

The new census data also shows that Long County, on the coast, has become Georgia’s 39th county to become majority-minority.