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Capital Facts for Atlanta, United States

September 25, 2020 by Danny Metrics

Atlanta, Georgia flag
Atlanta flag
Atlanta serves as the state capital for Georgia and is America’s 10th-most highly populated state capital city.

Nicknames for Atlanta include Hollywood of the South for its established film industry, Silicon Peach for its growing information technology sector, Running City USA for its nation-leading races including marathons, and the abbreviations ATL and The A. Monikers for Georgia are the Peach State and Empire State of the South.

Research website numbeo ranks Atlanta in the top 29% compared to the 250 cities evaluated on its overall quality of life index at June 2020. Atlanta scored well on index factors such as purchasing power (strongest 3%), property price to income ratio (lowest 11%), climate (best 25%) and pollution (cleanest 43%). On the negative side, Atlanta rates relatively poorly for safety (bottom 13%), traffic commute time (slowest 23%) and health care (lagging 47%).

Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport is the world’s biggest and busiest airline hub both in terms of passenger traffic and aircraft operations.

One of Atlanta’s popular tourist attractions is the Georgia Aquarium, the biggest indoor aquarium anywhere. Another tourist magnet is Zoo Atlanta which houses more than 1,300 animals representing over 220 species, including America’s largest collections of gorillas and orangutans.

The Varsity is a famous eatery in Atlanta, both a well-established fast-food chain and the world’s largest drive-in restaurant.

Guinness World Records documents Atlanta for hosting the Centennial Olympics in 1996, for which a record 8.3 million tickets were sold over the two-week competition. Those sales gives Atlanta a world record for the largest ticketed attendance for an Olympic Games, far ahead of Beijing’s 2008 Olympic Games at 6.8 million tickets.

Atlanta serves as headquarters for 13 massive corporations recognized as belonging to the Forbes Global 2000 world’s biggest companies. Examples of these leading Atlanta-based businesses are well-known brands led by Coco-Cola, Home Depot, United Parcel Services and Delta Airlines.

From an international trade perspective, Georgia exported US$41.252 billion worth of goods around the globe in 2019. Its most valuable exports include civilian aircraft and parts (21.2% of Georgia’s global total), passenger motor vehicles (3.6%), gas turbine parts (3.4%), chemical woodpulp, soda or sulfate (2.9%), unbleached kraft-liner paper (2%), chicken cuts and edible offal (also 2%), medical needles and catheters (1.7%), modems (1.2%), and kaolinic clays (1.1%) according to United States Census Bureau data.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Fulton County in Georgia (where Atlanta is located) was 10.3% in July 2020, up from 3.8% one year earlier.

Capital Facts for Atlanta, United States: Quick Reference

Geography


Capital landmarks: Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, Centennial Olympic Park, Dixie Coca-Cola Bottling Plant, Fox Theater, Georgia Dome, Georgia Governor’s Mansion, Philips Arena and Turner Field

Famous People

Below, you will find 10 of the most famous people born in Atlanta, United States.

  • Kanye West, Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter (born Jun. 8, 1977)
  • Steve Lundquist (aka Lunk), Olympic swimming gold medalist (born Feb. 20, 1961)
  • CeeLo Green, Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter (born May 30, 1974)
  • Dwight Howard, Olympic basketball gold medalist (born Dec. 8, 1985)
  • Cam Newton, professional NFL football quarterback (born May 11, 1989)
  • Kelly Rowland, Grammy Award-winning singer (born Feb. 11, 1981)
  • Lil Jon, rapper (born Jan. 17, 1971)
  • Brenda Lee, top-charting female singer (born Dec. 11, 1944)
  • Linda Hamilton, soccer/football player & coach (born Apr. 6, 1969)
  • Porsha Williams, reality TV star (born Jun. 22, 1982)

Note: Data for our Famous People tab was sourced from Google searches of published Wikipedia articles specific to each person’s name.

Population

Demonym for an Atlanta resident: Atlantan

Population: 523,738 (Atlanta) at September 25, 2020

Density: 3,859 people per square mile (1,490 per square kilometer)

Population: 10,736,100 (Georgia) at September 25, 2020

Density: 185 people per square mile (72 per square kilometer)

Financial

GDP: US$616.3 billion in 2019 (Georgia)

GDP per person: $58,035

Note: The above GDP metrics are on a current basis and are in U.S. dollars.

Official currency used in Atlanta: U.S. dollars

Research

Research Sources:
Brookings Institution, Global Metro Monitor Report (includes GDP data).

Dilemma X, U.S. Census Bureau metropolitan population estimates July 1, 2016.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Total Gross Domestic Product for Georgia (MSA).

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Unemployment Rate in Fulton County, GA (MSA).

Forbes Global 2000, The World’s Biggest Public Companies.

Guinness World Records, Largest attendance at an Olympic Games.

Nations Online, Capital Cities of the USA.

Numbeo, Quality of Life Index by City.

Official Government Website, City of Atlanta official website.

United States Census Bureau, Foreign Trade: State by 6-Digit HS Code and Top Countries.

United States Census Bureau, State Population Totals Tables: 2010-2016.

United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics: Seasonally Adjusted Metropolitan Area Estimates.

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Gross Domestic Product by Metropolitan Area, 2015 (Tables Only).

Wikimedia Commons, Atlanta city flag.

Wikipedia, Atlanta.

Wikipedia, Atlanta metropolitan area.

Wikipedia, Georgia U.S. state.

World Population Review, Atlanta, Georgia Population.

 
Atlantans celebrate Independence Day as a national holiday each July 4.

Atlanta’s land area occupies 135.73 square miles (351.53 square kilometers). The state capital’s population was 523,738 Atlantans at September 25, 2020.

At the state level, Georgia has a land area measuring 57,906 square miles (149,976 square kilometers) home to a population of 10.7 million people.

Atlanta’s population density is more concentrated averaging 3,859 residents per square mile (1,490 per square kilometer).

Zooming out to Georgia state’s land boundaries, population density dilutes to an average 185 inhabitants per square mile (72 per square kilometer).

Filed Under: North America, South, USA

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