ATLANTA — Data published by the U.S. Census Bureau in the last week paints a picture of where Georgia populations are growing and falling.
Between 2021 and 2022, the Census Bureau noted in a release that of the top five fastest-growing counties in America by percent growth, two were neighboring Dawson and Lumpkin counties (5.8% growth each) - about an hour and an hour and twenty minutes north of Downtown Atlanta, respectively.
Most of the estimated population growth around Atlanta is happening farther and farther from the city center.
Meanwhile, some population centers in Georgia - such as Columbus and Albany - have seen slight declines.
You can read more on the breakdown of Census data and population changes in Georgia counties here. Below, though, you can explore some of the data yourself with an interactive map compiled by 11Alive's Nick Wooten.
The map shows estimated population growth marked in green (the darker the green, the higher the percentage growth in the past two years) and declines marked by pink (again, the more significant a decline by percentage, the deeper the pink).
Georgia county-by-county population growth map
More on metro Atlanta's core population changes from 2021 to 2022
Fulton County: +12,103 year-over-year
- 2022: 1,074,634
- 2021: 1,062,531
- April 2020: 1,066,702
Fulton saw a fairly substantial surge of about 12,000 new residents between 2021 and 2022 - but as you can see by comparing back to 2020, the gain over the last two years is only about 5,000 after there was a drop from 2020 to 2021.
Gwinnett County: +10,208
- 2022: 975,353
- 2021: 965,145
- April 2020: 957,027
Gwinnett is a different case from Fulton: It's long been one of the fastest-growing counties in the country and continues to grow at a healthy rate (though no longer in the top 10 in the U.S.). The comparison from 2020 to 2022 shows a gain of more than 17,000 residents in the last two years.
DeKalb County: +3,589
- 2022: 762,820
- 2021: 759,231
- April 2020: 764,386
DeKalb gained year-over-year from 2021 to 2022, but looking back at 2020, the county is still recovering from population loss from 2020 to 2021. Over the two years, DeKalb is down 1,600 residents.
Cobb County: +5,261
- 2022: 771,952
- 2021: 766,691
- April 2020: 766,160
Cobb saw a healthy bump from 2021 to 2022 after a mostly static change the year before. It now sits solidly ahead of DeKalb as the third-largest county in the core metro.
Clayton County: -754
- 2022: 296,564
- 2021: 297,318
- April 2020: 297,608
Clayton County's population has declined slightly in each of the last two years.