10 Biggest cities in the Metro (Atlanta, Sandy Springs: schools, live in, zip codes)

[Mgyeldell]

I decided to put the Population of the 10 biggest metro Cities, but of just adding the incorporated areas I decided to also add the unincorporated areas that held a zip code that was under the same name as the city. Its a little inacurate becuase Zip codes don't always follwes city boundaries but I tried.

Actual City Pop./ Pop. with Uni. Areas
1. Atlanta 519,145 904,000(aprox)
2. Roswell 87,719 87,719
3 Sandy Springs 85,625 85,625
4. Marietta 67,021 438,223
5. John's Creek 59,431 59,431
6. Alpharetta 49,903 49,903
7. Smyrna 49,854 118,053
8. East Point 43,418 43,418
9. Dunwoody 39,583 39,583
10. Gainesville 35,668 127,573


So the biggest "cities" really are

1. Atlanta
2. Marietta
3. Decatur 18,986 184,818
4. Lawrenceville 29,258 160,147
5. Douglasville 30,035 147,061
6. Gainesville
7. Smyrna
8. Stone Mountain 7,211 137,047
9. Roswell
10. Sandy Springs

These numbers could be off by a lot, Zip Code boundaries do not always follow City, county or any regular jurisdictional boundaries, but I believe the rankings and the populations could not be that far off.

Ohh I.E. I had to put Aprox next to Atlanta pop, becuase I deleted Atlanta and forgot the exact number but I do remember it was around 904,000, but Please enjoy the listings,

Also I know Alpharetta might be the most off but I was going off of populations from 09 and the newer cities in North Fulton of Milton and Johns Creek really throw the numbers off for that town.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Mgyeldell

I decided to put the Population of the 10 biggest metro Cities, but of just adding the incorporated areas I decided to also add the unincorporated areas that held a zip code that was under the same name as the city. Its a little inacurate becuase Zip codes don't always follwes city boundaries but I tried.

Yep, there are weird things like Atlanta 30339 which is mostly (or entirely) in unincorporated Cobb County. That's Vinings, the Cumberland Mall area, etc.

Interesting numbers, though. "Marietta" addresses do stretch quite a distance from the actual city in all directions, it seems.

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by Mgyeldell

Actual City Pop./ Pop. with Uni. Areas
1. Atlanta 519,145 904,000(aprox)
2. Roswell 87,719 87,719
3 Sandy Springs 85,625 85,625
4. Marietta 67,021 438,223
5. John's Creek 59,431 59,431
6. Alpharetta 49,903 49,903
7. Smyrna 49,854 118,053
8. East Point 43,418 43,418
9. Dunwoody 39,583 39,583
10. Gainesville 35,668 127,573


So the biggest "cities" really are

1. Atlanta
2. Marietta
3. Decatur 18,986 184,818
4. Lawrenceville 29,258 160,147
5. Douglasville 30,035 147,061
6. Gainesville
7. Smyrna
8. Stone Mountain 7,211 137,047
9. Roswell
10. Sandy Springs

Roswell and Sandy Springs are bigger than Marietta. You cannot use postal addresses and zip codes. Here in GA, postal addresses do not reflect city limits or county limits. The official MSA populations reflect the correct population within the city limits. Everything else is unincorporated. Most of Cobb County has a Marietta postal address, so you would have to count many people who do not live in the City of Marietta.

[RainyRainyDay]

Originally Posted by neil0311

Roswell and Sandy Springs are bigger than Marietta. You cannot use postal addresses and zip codes. Here in GA, postal addresses do not reflect city limits or county limits. The official MSA populations reflect the correct population within the city limits. Everything else is unincorporated. Most of Cobb County has a Marietta postal address, so you would have to count many people who do not live in the City of Marietta.

I think that was the OP's intent, but it's not very meaningful. I noticed that OP ascribed to the City of Roswell the same figures for "Actual City Pop" and "Pop with Unincorporated Areas". That's certainly not correct according to the OP's intended scheme, because I live in a Roswell zip code in Cobb County.

A useful thing about the "Marietta" numbers though, is how well they illustrate your comment that "most of Cobb County has a Marietta postal address".

[Georgia]

Originally Posted by neil0311

Roswell and Sandy Springs are bigger than Marietta. You cannot use postal addresses and zip codes. Here in GA, postal addresses do not reflect city limits or county limits. The official MSA populations reflect the correct population within the city limits. Everything else is unincorporated. Most of Cobb County has a Marietta postal address, so you would have to count many people who do not live in the City of Marietta.

True,

I notice you have Lawrenceville, which is a good example.
It is the county seat of Gwinnett County and the zip code spans one of the largest land masses of the metro area. Take this into account and you will have a small per mile population than other areas you mentioned.
In Gwinnett Duluth 30096/7 is much smaller but has double the population of Lawrenceville.

[matt8325]

Gainesville is not even in metro Atlanta so why is it included in this list ? You might as well include cities like Rome and Athens too.

[Big L]

I know that I have said this on here before, but I still don't get the large amounts of unincorporated area out here. I'm sure that there is some historical basis for it, but times have changed.

Most of us come from places where cities carried more weight than counties, mainly because most counties consisted of cities whose limits pretty much ran alongside of each other. Conversely, you can easily drive 10-20 miles in some parts of Metro Atlanta and never touch anyone's city limits.

[Mgyeldell]

Thanks for the Feedback everyone who has said something,

to RainyRainyDay, I was surprised when I finished doing Marietta, I knew alot of people had a Marietta address I didn't know it was that many.

to Neil, I know that Sandy Springs and Roswell are bigger than Marietta within the city limits, but if you include the Unicorporated areas of Marietta than the "pop" of Marietta is larger than both of those cities, and the best way of doing this is by doing it by zip code.

to Georgia, I was also surprised by Lawrenceville I thought it would be bigger than Marietta for overall population, but finding out it around the same pop as Stone Mountain overall, I thought it would be bigger cause Gwinett is the second largest county and has a lot of land space, but I'm guessing the smaller cities in the County take away from overall Population of Lawrenceville.

to Matt, I know Gainesville is not technicall in the Metro its in the CSA, and it was included in the ten largest so I used it.

Edit: I kept the Population of Sandy Springs, Roswell, Apharetta, and Johns Creek the same for 1 main reason, the total incorporation of North Fulton County, I know Roswell and Alpharetta has some Zip Code Boundaries in other counties but it was hard to discern the exact population because part is in one county and part is in the city limits of the city.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Big L

I know that I have said this on here before, but I still don't get the large amounts of unincorporated area out here. I'm sure that there is some historical basis for it, but times have changed.

Unlike many other states, Georgia does not recognize intermediate steps between unincorporated area and full-blown City, which makes it somewhat harder for an area to incorporate. That's a large jump.

I think there were also rules regarding distance between incorporate cities or something. I don't remember. I'm hoping someone will fill in the details.

Most of us come from places where cities carried more weight than counties, mainly because most counties consisted of cities whose limits pretty much ran alongside of each other. Conversely, you can easily drive 10-20 miles in some parts of Metro Atlanta and never touch anyone's city limits.

Absolutely, and that's quite true. I find it interesting that some of the more desireable areas in Cobb County (East Cobb and Vinings) are unincorporated areas. Since the county essentially acts as a city, though, in terms of services and such provided, it really doesn't make that much difference.

[RainyRainyDay]

Originally Posted by Mgyeldell

I was surprised when I finished doing Marietta, I knew alot of people had a Marietta address I didn't know it was that many.

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

I find it interesting that some of the more desireable areas in Cobb County (East Cobb and Vinings) are unincorporated areas. Since the county essentially acts as a city, though, in terms of services and such provided, it really doesn't make that much difference.

These points are very relevant to the not infrequent posts from out-of-state along the lines of "My cousin lives in Marietta and I'm thinking of relocating there. How are the (schools, jobs, housing, etc. etc.)?"

In my opinion, "My cousin lives in Marietta" almost certainly means nothing more than "My cousin's street address has 'Marietta' as the city name," in other words, the cousin lives somewhere in Cobb County (other than the non-Marietta incorporated cities of Smyrna, Acworth, etc.). It's as well to try to sort this out with the enquirer, rather than leaping into detail on the City of Marietta, specifically.