What’s it like to live in Atlanta, GA?
Atlanta is a large city located in the state of Georgia. With a population of 463,878 people and 175 constituent neighborhoods, Atlanta is the largest community in Georgia.
Atlanta real estate is some of the most expensive in Georgia, although Atlanta house values don’t compare to the most expensive real estate in the U.S.
Atlanta is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 89.02% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Atlanta is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Atlanta who work in management occupations (12.88%), sales jobs (12.09%), and office and administrative support (10.97%).
Of important note, Atlanta is also a city of artists. Atlanta has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Atlanta’s character.
Also of interest is that Atlanta has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.
One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 7.28% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
In addition, Atlanta also has a very large population of students, making it a major college town. As often the case, having so many students around has a strong influence on the local culture. In fact, Atlanta is one of only a few big cities that are also major college towns, making it one of the nation’s prominent intellectual centers. In addition, the presence of thousands of college students gives Atlanta a sophisticated style, and provides lots of diversions and entertainment for students. Being a big “college town” not only means that Atlanta has a burgeoning arts, music, and nightclub scene, but the innovation sector of the local economy receives a great boost from both the intellectual output of the faculty and the thousands of enthusiastic students who graduate every spring.
Atlanta is a big city, and with that comes lots of benefits. One benefit is that most big cities have public transit, but Atlanta really shines when it comes to the extensiveness and use of its public transit system. More than most large American cities, Atlanta citizens use public transit daily to get to and from work. And while there are transportation options, most people in Atlanta ride the bus. Whereas in some cities one is destined to sit in traffic every morning to get to work and every evening to get home, in Atlanta a lot leave their cars at home (if they even choose to own one), and hop a ride on the bus.
The education level of Atlanta ranks among the highest in the nation. Of the 25-and-older adult population in Atlanta, 47.15% have at least a bachelor’s degree. The typical US community has just 21.84% of its adults holding a bachelor’s degree or graduate degree.
The per capita income in Atlanta in 2010 was $35,719, which is wealthy relative to Georgia and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $142,876 for a family of four. However, Atlanta contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Atlanta is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Atlanta home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Atlanta residents report their race to be Black or African-American, followed by White. Important ancestries of people in Atlanta include German, Irish, Italian, and Scottish.
The most common language spoken in Atlanta is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.