Census: Metro Atlanta packed on 730,000 more residents in nine years

While most of Atlanta might resemble a quiet, eerie scene from The Walking Dead right now, due to coronavirus outbreak concerns, the metro area’s population continues to swell.

Between 2010 and 2019, as the metro Atlanta economy surged from the Great Recession, the region’s population spiked from nearly 5.3 million people to more than 6 million, according to new U.S. Census data.

That’s a more than 730,000-resident uptick, making Atlanta the fourth fastest-growing metro area in the nation.

The region, which includes cities Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, and Alpharetta, trails only the metros of Dallas, Houston, and Phoenix in terms of numeric growth.

The two Texas cities both saw their metro regions swell by more than a million people, and metro Phoenix saw a roughly 755,000-person increase, narrowly keeping Atlanta out of the Top 3.

U.S. Census Bureau

Metro Atlanta’s recent population growth also makes it the ninth largest metro region in the U.S., on the heels of Philadelphia, Miami, and Washington D.C., which each house between 6.1 and 6.3 million people, per the data.

New York and Los Angeles metros were, of course, found to be the most populous, tallying more than 19 million and 13 million people, respectively.

Metro Atlanta won’t catch the populations of those behemoths soon, but it’s far from done growing, despite current hiccups, experts have said.

Atlanta Regional Commission projections have suggested the region could swell to around 8.6 million people by 2050.