Atlanta Leads Nation As City With Biggest Black Population Gain, Report Finds

Jet, July 30, 2001

Atlanta is the hot spot for Blacks--and the numbers prove it.

Hundreds of thousands of African Americans have flocked to the Southern city over the past decade, making it the city with the largest Black population gain in the United States, according to a recent study of 2000 census data. And the growth spurt doesn't stop with Atlanta. The South as a whole saw a boom in its Black population, rising from 1.7 million in the 1980s to nearly 3.6 million in the 1990s.

Study author William H. Frey, a research scientist at the University of Michigan Population Studies Center and senior research fellow at the Milken Institute in Santa Monica, CA, says this large influx of Blacks to the South "is serving to recreate in the South a distinctive region, which now houses almost 55 percent of the nation's Blacks."

He says that, like Whites, Blacks are attracted to the good economy, the less-crowded areas and the warmer climate, adding that Blacks hold historic roots to the South and recognize the much-improved racial climate.

His report, Census 2000 Shows Large Black Return to the South, Reinforcing the Region's "White-Black" Demographic Profile, shows that among the metro areas with the largest Black population gains, Atlanta ranked No. 1 with a gain of 459,582 Black residents, edging out No. 2 New York, which saw an increase of 450,725 Blacks. The Washington, D.C.-Baltimore area took the No. 3 spot with a gain of 358,727, Miami came in at No. 4 with 241,492 and No. 5 Chicago saw an increase of 181,101.

The report also shows that, in terms of states with the biggest Black gains, Florida and Georgia head the list with about 674,119 and 632,262 respectively. Texas, New York, Maryland and North Carolina also saw population swells as each state gained more than 300,000 Blacks in the past decade.