Georgia -9.072 million strong and growing.

[Lady Celeste]

Well folks, when you are sitting in traffic on I78, I85, I20, I285, GA400 or any other metro Atlanta artery. When you hear about the 18th billionth lifestyle center for Augusta, or the next new downtown or Ft Benning addition in Columbus, or some new mixed used development in Macon, you can thank the 157,447 people who moved to Georgia between July 2004 till July 2005.

Georgia now has 154,447 additional people, bringing the state's number to 9.07 million in July 2005, up from 8.92 million from the year before, a 1.7 percent increase.

Overall the country grew by .09 percent in the pasy year, to about 296.4 million people.

[ironchapman]

Great job for us!

To place this into perspective, this is like an entire Bibb County (Macon's county for the outsiders) moving into the state in one year.

Or for those of you closer to Atlanta, it's like an entire Henry or almost all of an entire Cherokee County moving in during one year. That's a lot of people.

[Lady Celeste]

You are right Chappy.....my favorite Douglas resident....and if we continue to grow like we are, we may pick up another seat in the house eventually. This growth as great political ramifications as well.

Get this little tid bit.

The growth in Georgia, Florida, Texas, California and Arizona accounted fro more than one-half of the population growth from 2004-2005.

This is why things like the Beltline and commuter rail from Atlanta to Athens, Augusta, Columbus, Macon and Savannah are so important. It will take visionaries and at first it will be scary but something that is necessary. Atlanta will become more and more dense....yes, it will continue to sprawl but the core as we know it now will not be the core what we see 20 years from now.

[socaguy]

I bet a good half of those are immigrants too. Anyone have any figures?

[Lady Celeste]

I bet a good half of those are immigrants too. Anyone have any figures?

See this thread a few threads down on the Georgia front page:

Georgia's Immigrant population surges. - UrbanPlanet.org

Story here.

Per these numbers, 248,000 immigrants moved to Georgia from 2000-2004. That's about 62,000 new immigrants a year. That number would be 40% of the 154,447 (Jul 04- Jul 05) people moving to Georgia. We however do not have 2004-2005 numbers so it could be more.....and it could be less

[EbonyGardens]

Good job for Georgia. What's the chance of GA getting to 10 million, say by this time next year?

[ironchapman]

Good job for Georgia. What's the chance of GA getting to 10 million, say by this time next year?

Not too high, I'd say. I mean, we only added 155,000 people this year. We'd have to add 900,000+ people in one year to achieve 10 mil.

[NCB]

Great job Georgia!

[Newnan]

I knew we'd hit 9 milloin this year. It kind of annoys me though because I still can't find the 2005 population figures anywhere!!

So far, GA has grown like Illinois; The State has 12 million people but most are concentrated in the Chicago Area. This is the way GA and metro ATL have grown. I'm hoping that in the future, GA will have a balance of growth in ATL, the fall line cities, Savannah, Valdosta, and every other area of the state. Columbus and Augusta's growth shows some good signs for that!

-I read somewhere that Savannah has the fastest growing port in the US; is this true?