Atlanta statistics show a growing city inside a larger and rapidly expanding metropolitan region. The city had 520,070 residents on July 1, 2024, while the 11-county Atlanta region reached 5,221,074 people on April 1, 2024. The figures below distinguish city, region, airport, and metro labor-market measures, with each statistic tied to its stated period.
Contents
- Population and regional growth
- Age, race, and identity
- Households, housing, and mobility
- Education, health, and work
- Income, poverty, and business activity
- Atlanta airport statistics
- Atlanta-area employment
Population and regional growth
According to U.S. Census QuickFacts, Atlanta’s population base was 498,792 on April 1, 2020. The 2020 Census count was 498,715, compared with 420,003 in the 2010 Census. QuickFacts lists the city at 520,070 people on July 1, 2024, and reports 4.3% growth from April 1, 2020, to July 1, 2024. These dates and definitions matter: the 2020 base, the decennial count, and the 2024 estimate are related but not interchangeable measures.
The city is part of a much larger regional population. The Atlanta Regional Commission estimated 5,221,074 residents across 11 counties on April 1, 2024. The region added 62,700 residents between April 1, 2023, and April 1, 2024. The City of Atlanta’s ARC estimate was 532,115 on April 1, 2024, with a net increase of 10,800 from 2023 to 2024.
Several counties contributed substantially to that regional increase. Fulton County added 17,400 residents, Gwinnett County added 14,900, Cobb County added 6,700, and Cherokee County added 5,400 between 2023 and 2024. The ARC reported the fastest listed county growth in Cherokee County at 1.9%, followed by Henry County at 1.8%. Forsyth, Fulton, and Douglas counties each grew 1.6% over the same period.
Atlanta’s 2020 land area was 135.31 square miles, and its population density was 3,685.7 people per square mile, according to U.S. Census QuickFacts. Those city-level measures provide geographic context for a population that is also connected to a far larger suburban and regional footprint.
Age, race, and identity
Atlanta’s age profile includes both younger residents and older adults. U.S. Census QuickFacts reports that 4.9% of residents were under age 5, 16.6% were under age 18, and 12.3% were age 65 or older. Women represented 51.0% of the city’s population.
The city’s reported racial and ethnic measures were:
| Measure | Atlanta share |
|---|---|
| White alone | 39.1% |
| Black alone | 46.0% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native alone | 0.3% |
| Asian alone | 5.3% |
| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone | 0.0% |
| Two or More Races | 7.2% |
| Hispanic or Latino | 6.3% |
| White alone, not Hispanic or Latino | 38.1% |
These categories should be read as separate Census measures rather than added into one total. Hispanic or Latino is an ethnicity that can overlap with racial categories, while “White alone, not Hispanic or Latino” is a narrower measure than “White alone.”
U.S. Census QuickFacts also reports 16,286 veterans in Atlanta during the 2020–2024 estimate period. Foreign-born residents represented 9.0% of the population during that period. Among residents age 5 and older, 12.2% spoke a language other than English at home.
Households, housing, and mobility
Atlanta had 236,468 households in the 2020–2024 estimate period, with an average household size of 2.00 persons, according to U.S. Census QuickFacts. Residential stability was measured at 78.7%: that was the share of residents who lived in the same house one year earlier during the same estimate period.
Homeownership was 46.4% of occupied housing units in 2020–2024. The median value of owner-occupied housing units was $439,600. Median monthly owner costs were $2,423 for owners with a mortgage and $836 for owners without a mortgage. Median gross rent was $1,711.
The housing figures describe different financial situations. The owner-occupied value is a property-value measure, while the two owner-cost figures separate households with and without a mortgage. Rent is reported separately as median gross rent, so these values should not be treated as one combined housing-cost average.
Digital access was widespread. QuickFacts reports that 96.1% of Atlanta households had a computer in 2020–2024, and 91.7% had a broadband subscription. The gap between those measures indicates that computer ownership and broadband subscription were tracked as distinct household characteristics.
The mean commute time to work was 26.5 minutes in 2020–2024. Because this is a mean, it describes average travel time rather than the midpoint of all commute times.
Education, health, and work
Among Atlanta residents age 25 and older, 93.4% were high school graduates or higher in 2020–2024, according to U.S. Census QuickFacts. The share with a bachelor’s degree or higher was 59.2%. These attainment measures use the same age threshold but represent different levels of education.
Health-related measures show that 8.5% of residents under age 65 had a disability during 2020–2024, while 11.3% of residents under age 65 lacked health insurance. The age restriction is important: neither percentage describes all residents regardless of age.
Labor-force participation was 68.7% among Atlanta residents age 16 and older. Among females age 16 and older, the civilian labor-force participation rate was 66.2%. Labor-force participation measures the share in the civilian labor force, not the share currently employed.
Income, poverty, and business activity
Atlanta’s median household income was $85,652 in 2020–2024, and per capita income was $65,718, according to U.S. Census QuickFacts. The city’s poverty rate was 16.9% during that estimate period. Median household income describes the midpoint of household income, while per capita income divides income across individuals; the two measures answer different questions.
The city’s 2022 business receipts show activity across several major sectors. Health care and social assistance receipts were $13,219,440,000. Transportation and warehousing receipts were $23,609,220,000. Retail sales reached $13,290,849,000, including retail sales of $26,647 per capita. Accommodation and food services sales were $5,534,887,000.
| 2022 Atlanta business measure | Amount |
|---|---|
| Health care and social assistance receipts | $13,219,440,000 |
| Transportation and warehousing receipts | $23,609,220,000 |
| Retail sales | $13,290,849,000 |
| Accommodation and food services sales | $5,534,887,000 |
| Retail sales per capita | $26,647 |
The business figures are reported for 2022, while the income, poverty, housing, and education figures above cover 2020–2024 estimates. They should not be read as if they came from one common measurement year.
Atlanta airport statistics
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport served 108.1 million passengers in 2024, according to an ATL press release. ATL’s “About ATL” information reports more than $66 billion in annual economic impact, more than 63,000 on-site jobs, nonstop service to more than 160 domestic destinations, and nonstop service to 80 international destinations. The same source says the airport is within a two-hour flight of 80% of the U.S. population.
ATL’s facilities include 155 domestic gates and 43 international gates. The airport’s concessions program featured more than 300 commercial venues in the “About ATL” information, while the ATL Fact Sheet reports more than 386 concession outlets. These are different source descriptions and should not be collapsed into a single venue count.
The Plane Train uses eleven four-car trains on a 3-mile loop track. It operates approximately every two minutes and carries more than 200,000 passengers per day on average. ATL averages 286,000 passengers per day and 2,100 arrivals and departures daily, according to the ATL Fact Sheet.
The airport has more than 30,000 public parking spaces, including more than 3,500 spaces in international terminal parking. Its Rental Car Center opened in December 2009 on a 67.5-acre site and includes more than 8,700 parking spaces. The SkyTrain connects customers to the Rental Car Center in five minutes and can carry 100 passengers and their baggage per trainset.
Cargo and airfield assets span 7.8 million square feet across 198 acres, with 28 parking positions for cargo aircraft. ATL’s air traffic control tower is 398 feet tall. The ATL Fact Sheet describes it as the tallest in North America and fourth tallest in the world.
The ATL Fact Sheet says the airport served more than 150 U.S. destinations and more than 70 international destinations in 43 countries. It also reports that ATL was the world’s busiest airport for 23 out of 24 years since 1998. ATLNext launched in 2016 as a multibillion-dollar modernization program, according to About ATL.
Atlanta-area employment
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Atlanta Economy at a Glance reported an Atlanta-area civilian labor force of 3,301.5 thousand in October 2025. Area employment was 3,171.7 thousand, and unemployment was 129.8 thousand. The unemployment rate was 3.9%.
Total nonfarm payroll employment was 3,118.7 thousand in October 2025, a 0.4% change over 12 months. The metro labor-market measures are not city-only counts; they describe the Atlanta area as defined in the BLS Atlanta EAG data.
Sector employment in October 2025 included 643.5 thousand jobs in trade, transportation, and utilities; 564.1 thousand in professional and business services; 208.8 thousand in financial activities; 176.9 thousand in manufacturing; 155.3 thousand in construction; and 102.5 thousand in information. Together, these figures show the scale of several major employment groupings, while the overall labor-force and unemployment measures provide the wider metro-area context.