Census 2010: Atlanta's Urban Area - What it is and how it's changed.

[rorqual]

Originally Posted by Onthemove2014

So the metro only has 4 million people?

I think the MSA is 5+million and the CSA is 6+ million.

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by Onthemove2014

So the metro only has 4 million people?

No, Metro Atlanta has close to 6 million residents.

Major cities are divided up this way.

1. Central City(ies)
2. Urban Area
3. Metropolitan Statistical Area
4. Combined Statistical Area (not all metros have this).

This thread is about number two on the list above. You can think of the Urban Area as a measurement of primarily the central city and the inner suburbs with the addition of some fringe extra-suburban and exurban areas added in.

[cwkimbro]

I hope someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't think they have updated the new MSA boundaries yet. The population we keep seeing of 5.2 million is based on the counties that were in the Census 2000 MSA.

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

I hope someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't think they have updated the new MSA boundaries yet. The population we keep seeing of 5.2 million is based on the counties that were in the Census 2000 MSA.

That is correct. The new definitions will be released next year.

[bryantm3]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

I hope someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't think they have updated the new MSA boundaries yet. The population we keep seeing of 5.2 million is based on the counties that were in the Census 2000 MSA.

i seriously doubt it'll make a lot of difference. the biggest population growth has been in the suburban and urban areas of atlanta— even if you move the MSA out to the north carolina state line, you're going to pick up less and less people as you move the line outwards, and instead skew the population density to make it look a lot less dense than it actually is.

there was an app someone posted a while back that allowed you to click a point anywhere in the US, and then measure the population in a one mile circle around the area up to like a 200 mile circle around the area. i remember being very surprised— once you get out to a certain point, alpharetta per se, it doesn't matter how much bigger you make the circle, the population doesn't keep rising at anywhere near the rate that you'd think it would. there was something like a quarter of a million people's difference between a circle with a 20 mile radius and one with a 50 mile radius.

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

i seriously doubt it'll make a lot of difference. the biggest population growth has been in the suburban and urban areas of atlanta— even if you move the MSA out to the north carolina state line, you're going to pick up less and less people as you move the line outwards, and instead skew the population density to make it look a lot less dense than it actually is.

there was an app someone posted a while back that allowed you to click a point anywhere in the US, and then measure the population in a one mile circle around the area up to like a 200 mile circle around the area. i remember being very surprised— once you get out to a certain point, alpharetta per se, it doesn't matter how much bigger you make the circle, the population doesn't keep rising at anywhere near the rate that you'd think it would. there was something like a quarter of a million people's difference between a circle with a 20 mile radius and one with a 50 mile radius.

True. For all of the talk about sprawl in Metro Atlanta, the majority of all people in the metro live in Fulton, Dekalb, Cobb, Gwinnett and Clayton counties. You pick up another million when you add up the 10 counties that surround those, and then another few hundred thousand with those counties, then nothing.