Gwinnett will experience 57 percent growth and will be home to more than 1.35 million people by 2040. That number is almost 100,000 more than the forecasted 2040 population of Fulton County, the only other county in the region to break the one million mark.
Highlights of Gwinnett’s 2040 forecast include:
· The county will become even more diverse, with a population that is 37 percent Hispanic, 29 percent white, 20 percent black and 14 percent “other.”
· The share of the county’s population that is 65 and over will increase from 9 percent to 21 percent.
· Gwinnett will add 156,000 jobs, a 40 percent increase, with construction and technology jobs driving the growth.
According to ARC’s regional forecast , the 20-county Atlanta region will add 2.5 million people by 2040, bringing the region’s population to more than 8 million. While the region’s core counties of Gwinnett, Fulton, Cobb and DeKalb will add the most people, metro Atlanta’s outlying counties will grow at the fastest rates.
Highlights of ARC’s county forecasts include:
Forsyth County will grow at the fastest rate, seeing its population more than double by 2040, to 430,000.
The number of Hispanics in metro Atlanta will reach 1.75 million, an increase of more than 1 million. Most of the growth will occur in the region’s core counties of Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb, DeKalb and Clayton.
The number of residents age 65 and over will nearly triple to 1.6 million.
The Atlanta region is expected to add more than 1 million jobs by 2040. The top employment sectors in 2040 will be health care, retail, education and professional and scientific.
The forecasts helped inform the development of the Atlanta Region’s Plan, a long-range blueprint that details the investments that will be made in the next 25 years to improve the Atlanta region’s quality of life.
“The Atlanta region will remain a desirable place to live, thanks to our low cost of living and a strong economy that continues to create jobs,” said Mike Alexander, director of ARC’s Center for Livable Communities. “We’ll see growth in existing suburban areas as well as the region’s core, as more people choose to live near jobs or transit.”
More information about the population and employment forecasts can be found at ARC’s interactive data dashboard and at ARC’s data and research blog, 33°N .
