Fulton County, home of Georgia’s capital and its biggest city, continued to grow last year along with other metro counties despite the economic downturn, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Thursday.
Fulton County tipped past the one-million person mark — the first county in the state to reach that milestone. Several of the metro area’s outlying counties had the fastest growth rates in the country, the census bureau reported, citing the latest numbers available. The new census figures reflect population growth measured from July 1, 2007, to July 1, 2008. Fulton’s population was recorded as 1,014,932 residents as of last summer, up from 992, 472 the year before.
But economists say metro Atlanta population growth has likely slowed somewhat since last summer, due to the severe economic downturn. Even so, they don’t expect the area to lose any ground population wise, and predict it will continue to outpace growth nationally.
“What happened in September (2008) was a game-changer,” said University of Georgia economic forecaster Jeff Humphreys. “It will have an impact on the state’s rate of growth, but it will not result in negative growth.”
One indication of the economic decline was a dramatic dip in residential building permits. Metro Atlanta saw a 56 percent drop in residential building permits in the first 11 months of 2008, compared with the number in the same period in 2007, said Mike Alexander, Research Division Chief of the Atlanta Regional Commission.
Even with the big slowdown, metro Atlanta is still fourth in the United States in total residential building permits issued in 2008, Alexander said.
Lynne Riley, a Fulton County Commissioner representing Alpharetta, Johns Creek and other northern cities, said the numbers show Fulton “is a thriving and robust community.”
Forsyth County, with 168,060 residents, was once again ranked as one of the fastest-growing counties in the nation — it was fifth — with a percentage growth rate of 6.3 percent. Six of the 50 fastest-growing counties in the nation — Forsyth, Barrow, Paulding, Jackson, Bryan and Coweta — were in Georgia. The state had 14 of the top 100 fastest-growing counties.
The Atlanta metro area, which consists of 28 counties, is now the eighth largest in the nation with 5,376,285 people. Atlanta ranks just behind the Miami metro area and just ahead of the Washington D.C. area.
The census bureau said the Atlanta metro area was number four in the nation in terms of numeric growth, adding 114, 989 people last year.
Labels: economy, Forsyth County, Fulton County, Georgia, Growth
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Brian Vanderhoff @ 6:49 AM
