Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Well, it is a theory but a very logical one. Boston's MSA grew up fewer than 200,000 people from 2000-2009; Atlanta's MSA grew by more than 1.2 million. It doesn't take a rocket scientist (pun intended) to acknowledge that many of those people moving to Metro Atlanta are highly educated and RAISING the bar overall, not lowering it. This isn't meant as a slight of Atlanta, just a reality -- it's got a highly educated, diverse white collar work force that in turn attracts more of the same. In sheer numbers, Boston just doesn't match in the relocation quotient. That's why I suggested Boston's brains are more home-grown, while Atlanta's are drawn from around the country and the world (i.e. just look at the CDC or CNN for example, which both draw highly skilled, highly professional people to Atlanta for very specific jobs that are hardly found in such mass quantities in similar sized cities.)
Well if course if you're talking about sheer numbers, then Atlanta has more relocated people in general...but I would assume you were talking about percentages of homegrown people, not overall numbers. But anyway...that is getting off-topic.
You are right though...Atlanta does attract a large, well-educated work force: Young and Restless Press Release (http://metroatlantachamber.com/(X(1)A(I1ajUDJeywEkAAAANmJkNjZkZDItY2FkZS00M2JjLWI 2M2QtYmJlMjdkZDY0ODI5XEjg-znqG1Yu4lBsu15DSRMuhyg1)S(bir2a045tdfazxmr45nj5l2v ))/content/Article.aspx?Id=125&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 - broken link)
Well, it is a theory but a very logical one. Boston's MSA grew up fewer than 200,000 people from 2000-2009; Atlanta's MSA grew by more than 1.2 million. It doesn't take a rocket scientist (pun intended) to acknowledge that many of those people moving to Metro Atlanta are highly educated and RAISING the bar overall, not lowering it. This isn't meant as a slight of Atlanta, just a reality -- it's got a highly educated, diverse white collar work force that in turn attracts more of the same. In sheer numbers, Boston just doesn't match in the relocation quotient. That's why I suggested Boston's brains are more home-grown, while Atlanta's are drawn from around the country and the world (i.e. just look at the CDC or CNN for example, which both draw highly skilled, highly professional people to Atlanta for very specific jobs that are hardly found in such mass quantities in similar sized cities.)
I am not even so much sure of that... there is another factor there... with people relocating to Boston area for college, *then* staying. I think that is a slightly different effect than college insert X City, THEN going to Boston. I am also not sure what market would be harder to break into. The colleges and universities in Boston are a large employer in themselves.
Not that Atlanta doesn't have this effect also with Georgia State/GT, BUT, as a percentage Boston might have the upper hand there.
Is Boston able to pull from a bigger area outside New England, with New York market sitting to its bottom, i.e. subregionally, regionally nationally? Is Atlanta able to pull from a wider range across the southeast, same thing, georgia/southeast/nationally? given no other city of its size for a greater distance?
Another one would be, the ability of Boston or Atlanta to attract people just for being Boston/Atlanta, despite the nature of the job vs. the percent who are going just for a job, that happens to be in Boston or Atlanta. In other words, ability for the city to market itself nationally, vs ability to create jobs for the national market.
I am not even so much sure of that... there is another factor there... with people relocating to Boston area for college, *then* staying. I think that is a slightly different effect than college insert X City, THEN going to Boston. I am also not sure what market would be harder to break into. The colleges and universities in Boston are a large employer in themselves.
Not that Atlanta doesn't have this effect also with Georgia State/GT, BUT, as a percentage Boston might have the upper hand there.
Is Boston able to pull from a bigger area outside New England, with New York market sitting to its bottom, i.e. subregionally, regionally nationally? Is Atlanta able to pull from a wider range across the southeast, same thing, georgia/southeast/nationally? given no other city of its size for a greater distance?
Another one would be, the ability of Boston or Atlanta to attract people just for being Boston/Atlanta, despite the nature of the job vs. the percent who are going just for a job, that happens to be in Boston or Atlanta. In other words, ability for the city to market itself nationally, vs ability to create jobs for the national market.
Just thought I would throw some variables in.
Well, let me put it this way: Because of Boston's plethora of top-ranked schools, more of it's population was educated there and stayed, whereas more of Atlanta's population was educated elsewhere and relocated to the city. This is not assumption or guesstimation but fact. Atlanta has HUGE numbers of alumni from major universities throughout the SE -- Florida, Florida State, Carolina, Auburn, Alabama, LSU, Kentucky, etc. And on the flip side, Georgia Tech's alumni base in the metro Atlanta area is relatively small compared to the number nationally -- it draws many, many students from out of state and the nation, compared to UGA which only has a 15 percent non-resident enrollment. And the majority of Tech's graduates DO leave Atlanta and the state because of the nature of their degrees. This is a big reason why Tech has had such a tough time over the years building an athletic fan base.
Interesting observation I've made through the years is that Florida may be the only state in the country where you'll find large numbers of UGA alumni outside of Atlanta, and vice-versa for University of Florida grads. There are THOUSANDS of Gator fans in the ATL.
Here are the statistics for those who have attained their Bachelor's & Graduate degree by metropolitan areas according to the Brookings Institute.
Bachelor's Degree (25 & older)
Atlanta: 34.6%
Boston: 41.9%
Average: 31.3%
Graduate Degree (25 & older)
Atlanta: 11.9%
Boston: 18.6%
Average: 11.7%
Interestingly enough, despite the fact that Atlanta is growing at a much faster rate than Boston...the percentage of Bostonians with degrees increased faster than that of Atlanta (Atl: 31.4% --> 34.6%; Boston: 37% --> 41.9%).
So while Atlanta is a bit better than average, Boston appears to be on the elite level.
The educational institutions in the Atlanta area are very good, but obviously Boston is on a totally different level...even without Harvard.
But we're not talking about DC though are we? Please don't deflect from the issue that the press-release uses old data.
So rather than go tit for tat, let's just settle this right now: what's the point of posting twenty-year old data this is irrelevant in July 2010??? It just shows a lack of intelligence from the usual Atlanta posters (which ironically then contradicts the whole point of the press release).
Some of the Atlanta boosterism is downright Orwellian in its approach. Tell people enough made up lies and propaganda about Atlanta, with the hopes that some uneducated rube will believe it.
I'm not arguing that the data is outdated, I'm asking you why you had to take a cheap shot -- AGAIN -- at Atlanta by making such a ridiculous statement. What relevance does your comment ("much of it negative") have to this thread? NONE. You simply hijacked this thread AS USUAL in order to take a jab at Atlanta, which you do again and again and again. Fine. We get it -- YOU DON'T LIKE ATLANTA! But don't go making blanket statements that have no basis in fact whatsoever (and show your own lack of intelligence, I might add).
I'm not arguing that the data is outdated, I'm asking you why you had to take a cheap shot -- AGAIN -- at Atlanta by making such a ridiculous statement. What relevance does your comment ("much of it negative") have to this thread? NONE. You simply hijacked this thread AS USUAL in order to take a jab at Atlanta, which you do again and again and again. Fine. We get it -- YOU DON'T LIKE ATLANTA! But don't go making blanket statements that have no basis in fact whatsoever (and show your own lack of intelligence, I might add).
If this thread had never been posted with the attempt to confuse or mislead readers of this forum with erroneous information, then all of this could've been avoided.
Location: The Greatest city on Earth: City of Atlanta Proper
8,485 posts, read 14,993,141 times
Reputation: 7333
Quote:
Originally Posted by tmac9wr
Here are the statistics for those who have attained their Bachelor's & Graduate degree by metropolitan areas according to the Brookings Institute.
Bachelor's Degree (25 & older)
Atlanta: 34.6%
Boston: 41.9%
Average: 31.3%
Graduate Degree (25 & older)
Atlanta: 11.9%
Boston: 18.6%
Average: 11.7%
Interestingly enough, despite the fact that Atlanta is growing at a much faster rate than Boston...the percentage of Bostonians with degrees increased faster than that of Atlanta (Atl: 31.4% --> 34.6%; Boston: 37% --> 41.9%).
So while Atlanta is a bit better than average, Boston appears to be on the elite level.
The educational institutions in the Atlanta area are very good, but obviously Boston is on a totally different level...even without Harvard.
By metro it is a wash with Boston the clear leader, at the city level though it's a lot closer. Like basically equal since their populations are about the same.
Boston proper:
Bachelor's degree or higher: 35.6%
Graduate or professional degree: 15.3%
Atlanta proper:
Bachelor's degree or higher: 34.6%
Graduate or professional degree: 13.8%
edit:
Are the number from the Brookings report for MSA or CSA. If it's CSA it's a clear win for Boston as it has a little more that a million extra people than the Atlanta CSA. If it's by MSA then it seems the two would still pretty much eqaul since there is an extra 1 million people in the Atlanta msa.
Last edited by waronxmas; 07-19-2010 at 11:09 PM..
If this thread had never been posted with the attempt to confuse or mislead readers of this forum with erroneous information, then all of this could've been avoided.
THis thread was not created to boost Atlanta.. It was created because I wanted to do something positive.. And this is a postive topic that never gets discussed that often.. It's something that people tend to overlook when speaking about Atlanta..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
