Metro Atlanta Population Hits Five Million

"Metro Atlanta marks a milestone today as the U.S. Census Bureau reports that it surged past 5 million people last year...It took 122 years from the founding of Atlanta for the area to reach 1 million people in 1959. The second million came 21 years later in 1980. The third million took 13 years, the fourth million seven years and the fifth million less than six years."

"With the new census figures, Atlanta now ranks as the nation's ninth largest metro area, behind Washington."

"The report shows that 12 of the nation's 100 fastest-growing counties since 2000 are in metro Atlanta. They appear at every point on the compass: Forsyth, Cherokee, Dawson and Pickens to the north; Henry and Coweta to the south; Newton, Gwinnett, Walton and Barrow to the east; Douglas and Paulding to the west. In sheer numbers, Gwinnett led the way with a gain of 168,656 since 2000."

"One of the reasons for the higher numbers: the influx of Gulf Coast evacuees fleeing Hurricane Katrina. While the report does not specify where people came from, the Federal Emergency Management Agency estimated a year after the storm that 84,000 evacuees were living in the Atlanta area."