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Georgia gets more urban and diverse as white residents dip

Clouds roll into downtown Atlanta on Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021, in Atlanta. The Census Bureau has issued its most detailed portrait yet of how the U.S. has changed over the past decade. The agency on Thursday released a trove of demographic data that will used to redraw political maps across an increasingly diverse country. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Clouds roll into downtown Atlanta on Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021, in Atlanta. The Census Bureau has issued its most detailed portrait yet of how the U.S. has changed over the past decade. The agency on Thursday released a trove of demographic data that will used to redraw political maps across an increasingly diverse country. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson) Clouds roll into downtown Atlanta on Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021, in Atlanta. The Census Bureau has issued its most detailed portrait yet of how the U.S. has changed over the past decade. The agency on Thursday released a trove of demographic data that will used to redraw political maps across an increasingly diverse country. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

By JEFF AMY / Associated Press 4 min read

ATLANTA (AP) – Georgia is growing ever more urban and ever more diverse, Census figures released Thursday show, continuing a shift in population toward metro Atlanta and away from the rural areas that were once the backbone of the state.

The state’s fastest-growing areas remain in the suburbs of Atlanta, Savannah and Augusta. Bryan County, just south of Savannah, grew by 48% over the decade, the sixth-fastest-growing county in the nation. Forsyth County, north of Atlanta, grew by 43%, the 13th-fastest-growing county nationally.

Metro Atlanta’s core counties didn’t grow as rapidly, percentage-wise, but all added large numbers of people. Of the just more than 1 million people that the state added between 2010 and 2020, about 152,000 were in Gwinnett County and about 146,000 were in Fulton County. Cobb, Forsyth and DeKalb counties each added more than 70,000 residents. Most of those areas will see their share of political representation increase.

Georgia’s total population rose to 10.7 million, up 10.6% from 9.7 million in 2010.

Some of that growth was concentrated in core areas. Atlanta grew to 498,000 people from 420,000 in 2010. That’s a nearly 19% growth rate, faster than Fulton and DeKalb counties as a whole. It’s also the city’s largest-ever Census population, surpassing 495,000 in 1970.