Metro Area Growth Keeps Georgia *th Most Populous (state, largest, compared)

[architect77]

2021 Georgia population nears 11 million at 10,830,000 residents.

And for the 3rd census in a row, remains slightly ahead of North Carolina which has 10,701,000.

130,000 people is what again keeps the two states neck and neck, after metro Atlanta's meteoric growth propelled Georgia ahead of NC for the first time in 2000.

The two states will likely continue to be intrinsically linked in that aspect for a long time.

Dovetailing each other in every way, What Georgia does well (big, cosmopolitan city known worldwide) NC can't because of its small-town DNA.

And everything that NC excels at, (strong, robust, small-town support, and unified alliances, state governing functions, is lacking or non-existent in Georgia.

But at least they're all within easy reach. Wish they worked together more, because a lot could be learned from one another.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/states

[citidata18]

Originally Posted by architect77

Dovetailing each other in every way, What Georgia does well (big, cosmopolitan city known worldwide) NC can't because of its small-town DNA.

The folks in Charlotte aren't going to like that.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by citidata18

The folks in Charlotte aren't going to like that.

Lol. The folks in Charlotte probably are too busy counting their money (much of which they got by raiding Atlanta’s banks and taking over Atlanta’s entire banking industry) at their 3 massive bank headquarters to care.

Atlanta obviously decisively dominates in air travel logistics (during normal times) and entertainment. But when it comes to banking and finance, Charlotte undeniably got the last laugh on Atlanta (and on everybody in the Eastern U.S. outside of New York).

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by architect77

2021 Georgia population nears 11 million at 10,830,000 residents.

And for the 3rd census in a row, remains slightly ahead of North Carolina which has 10,701,000.

130,000 people is what again keeps the two states neck and neck, after metro Atlanta's meteoric growth propelled Georgia ahead of NC for the first time in 2000.

The two states will likely continue to be intrinsically linked in that aspect for a long time.

Dovetailing each other in every way, What Georgia does well (big, cosmopolitan city known worldwide) NC can't because of its small-town DNA.

And everything that NC excels at, (strong, robust, small-town support, and unified alliances, state governing functions, is lacking or non-existent in Georgia.

But at least they're all within easy reach. Wish they worked together more, because a lot could be learned from one another.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/states

Good points, good comments and good thread.

Metro Atlanta’s robust growth in recent years and decades definitely has propelled Georgia’s ascendance into the top 10 of America’s most populated states.

Metro Atlanta’s robust growth has also helped Georgia to stay ahead of North Carolina, a neighboring Southeastern competitor state which has and continues to enjoy some very robust growth levels of its own, particularly in the Charlotte and Raleigh areas.

Your desire to see Georgia and North Carolina work together more also raises some important points.

At a first brief glance, it may appear that Georgia and North Carolina do not work together very much, if at all.

Which is something that would make sense because, while Georgia and North Carolina are neighboring Southeastern states that are very similar in size, demographic makeup and economic output, both states only touch for a relatively brief distance (with a shared border in western North Carolina and north Georgia) but are mostly physically separated by South Carolina...

... With both Georgia and North Carolina mostly being physically separated by the most important parts of South Carolina (the heavily populated, developed and industrialized South Carolina Piedmont; and the popular South Carolina Atlantic coast).

But when one digs deeper below the surface, they may find that Georgia and North Carolina work much more closely together than might be readily apparent to many, or even in ways that many metro Atlantans admittedly might be hesitant to admit.

For one, with about at least 5 major Atlanta banks (and about 6 major Georgia banks total) having been acquired by Charlotte banks over the last 35 years or so, to the point that there no longer are any major banks based in Atlanta, (with a few notable exceptions) a dominant chunk of Atlanta’s major banking industry is largely based in Charlotte.

That includes the major banks of Truist, Wells Fargo (East Coast headquarters) and Bank of America, the 3 of which pretty much collectively dominate much of the Atlanta market but are headquartered in Charlotte.

At this point in time, after having taken over all of Atlanta’s home-based major banking industry (a hub of major banks that seemingly was recognized as the largest in the Southeast as recently as the early 1980’s), North Carolina (Charlotte) is pretty much bankrolling/financing (and probably profiting majorly from) a very large and dominant chunk of Georgia’s (Atlanta’s) generally very robust economic activity.

The reality that a large and dominant chunk of Georgia’s (Atlanta’s) banking and finance industry is headquartered in North Carolina (Charlotte) connects both states in a very strong, powerful and direct way.

Much of Charlotte’s stunning growth into the preeminent banking and finance hub of Southeastern North America has been generated directly by Atlanta’s explosive growth into a large major metropolitan area of international influence and importance in the 7-plus decades after World War II.

Without Atlanta’s growth into a large major metropolitan area of international influence and importance on the strength of the major air travel hub at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Charlotte likely does not grow into and become the banking/finance hub (capital) of Southeastern North America.

Explosively fast-growing Atlanta’s banking and finance industry (whose growth was hampered by well-intentioned but arcane laws placed on it by Georgia state government) provided a prime and juicy major acquisition and expansion target for Charlotte’s very ambitious banking industry that was relatively easily attainable for Charlotte because of the relatively close proximity of the 2 cities (only about 245 miles apart).

I know that most metro Atlantans most likely would have preferred for their pretty sizable and important homegrown/home-based banking and finance industry to have not been completely taken over by another city (Charlotte). But Charlotte most likely needs to give much thanks for the stunning growth and dominance that Atlanta unwittingly helped it achieve.

[Born 2 Roll]

And speaking of “learning a lot” from each other, while North Carolina (Charlotte) has obviously learned a lot and gained a lot with its apparent virtual takeover of Georgia’s (Atlanta’s) homegrown major banking industry, there are other strong connections that both Georgia and North Carolina share.

Many Georgians (including and particularly metro Atlantans) attend college and postsecondary educational degrees at one of North Carolina’s many notable institutions, including:

> Western Carolina University (Cullowhee, NC)

> University of North Carolina at Asheville

> Appalachian State University (Boone, NC)

> University of North Carolina at Charlotte

> Davidson College

> Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, NC)

> Duke University (Durham, NC)

> University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

> North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC)

> North Carolina A&T State University (Greensboro, NC)

> North Carolina Central University (Durham, NC)

> East Carolina University (Greenville, NC)

> Winston-Salem State University

> University of North Carolina at Wilmington

> University of North Carolina at Greensboro

... etc...

There also are many native North Carolinians that move to Georgia (metro Atlanta) to enhance their career, professional networking and social networking opportunities.

While North Carolina’s economy, particularly in the mountainous western part of the state, typically benefits from having many residents of Georgia (particularly residents of metro Atlanta and North Georgia) visit and vacation in areas like Highlands, NC; Cherokee, NC; Asheville, NC; Boone, NC; Cashiers, NC; etc.

North Carolina’s (particularly Western North Carolina) status as a popular getaway spot for many metro Atlantans and Georgians, helps to generate much activity for North Carolina’s economy.

So while Georgia’s and North Carolina’s state governments often may not work closely together, there appear to be many other important factions and interests within each of the 2 states that do work very closely together and that do benefit and learn much from each other.

[bellhead]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

And speaking of “learning a lot” from each other, while North Carolina (Charlotte) has obviously learned a lot and gained a lot with its apparent virtual takeover of Georgia’s (Atlanta’s) homegrown major banking industry, there are other strong connections that both Georgia and North Carolina share.

Many Georgians (including and particularly metro Atlantans) attend college and postsecondary educational degrees at one of North Carolina’s many notable institutions, including:


> Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, NC)

My daughter is part of this group, going to law school at Wake.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by bellhead

My daughter is part of this group, going to law school at Wake.

I’ve got a friend who is back-and-forth between Atlanta and the Triad that grew up dreaming of going to Wake while growing up in the Triad but ended up going to Carolina (UNC-Chapel Hill) for undergrad.

She graduated from UNC more than 30 years ago but still gets sad about not getting to go to Wake Forest.

When she gets sad, she sometimes drinks (sometimes kind of heavily) and cries about not getting to go to (and graduate from) Wake while her fellow Carolina alumni try to comfort her and cheer her up.

While Wake often seems to get overshadowed by the much more high-profile Triangle schools (Duke, UNC and NC State), from what I have heard over the years, Wake has a reputation as an affluent, somewhat almost exclusive, Southern private school that has been loosely compared to a school like Vanderbilt.

[Fountain-of-youth]

Columbus city- 10k growth 2010-2020
Columbus metro 32k growth 2010-2020

[bellhead]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

I’ve got a friend who is back-and-forth between Atlanta and the Triad that grew up dreaming of going to Wake while growing up in the Triad but ended up going to Carolina (UNC-Chapel Hill) for undergrad.

She graduated from UNC more than 30 years ago but still gets sad about not getting to go to Wake Forest.

When she gets sad, she sometimes drinks (sometimes kind of heavily) and cries about not getting to go to (and graduate from) Wake while her fellow Carolina alumni try to comfort her and cheer her up.

While Wake often seems to get overshadowed by the much more high-profile Triangle schools (Duke, UNC and NC State), from what I have heard over the years, Wake has a reputation as an affluent, somewhat almost exclusive, Southern private school that has been loosely compared to a school like Vanderbilt.

My mom grew up in a small town called Elkin about 40 miles outside of Winston Salem, & to her Wake Forest was the college in a dream world she would have went to. From listening to her Wake was the old money & ruling class school of the Carolinas where they sent their children to be educated.