Atlanta Regional Commission

ARC projects Cobb population to surpass 1 million by 2050

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Cobb population growth, ARC 2050 chart
ARC graphics; click here for larger view

A new census is being taken next year, and this week the Atlanta Regional Commission released figures that go out three decades down the road, projecting Cobb population growth of 40 percent that will push the county past the one-million mark by the the year 2050.

The county currently has a population of more than 766,000, and the ARC is projecting that will grow by 295,000 over the next 30 years

Those figures are part of a larger forecast by the ARC that has the 21-county metro Atlanta growing by 2.9 million people, to 8.6 million, by 2050.

In addition, the area will gain 1.2 million more jobs in that time.

You can read summaries of the ARC report here and here.

Only Fulton and Gwinnett counties, the only ones more populous than Cobb, will remain that way, according to ARC, which says both will push beyond 1.4 million people each by 2050. DeKalb County is projected to come close to 1 million.

The ARC report indicates that Cobb’s Hispanic population will grow 21 percent over the next 30 or so years, and so will Cobb’s elderly population. By 2050, people 75 and older will make up 13 percent of the county population, compared to four percent today.

ARC Cobb ethnicity pie chart 2015-2140

Greater diversity is anticipated through the 21 counties. Cobb currently has a white population of 54 percent, with blacks making up 25 percent, Hispanics 14 percent and others seven percent.

By 2040, ARC projects Cobb’s population will be minority-majority, with blacks, Hispanics and other groups making up 58 percent of the population, and whites 41 percent.

More detailed aging numbers show that Cobb now has an elderly population rate (age 65 and older) of 11.75 percent, but that will grow to 22.5 percent by 2040.

Cobb’s population has stagnated in the most recent population update put out by the ARC in August, with an increase of only 8,100 people since 2018. (East Cobb’s roughly estimated population is around 200,000, taking in ZIP codes 30062, 30066, 30067, 30068 and the Cobb portion of 30075).

Forsyth County population is expected to double by 2050, to more than 440,000, and Henry County is expected to have a growth rate of 70 percent.

The ARC projects that the largest job gains will be in the health care and social assistance; professional, scientific and technical; and construction sectors. The largest job losses, per the ARC, are forecast to occur in the manufacturing and utilities sectors.

 

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Cobb population growth rises slightly in 2018, to 766,400

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East Cobb ZIP Code map, Cobb population growth

The population of Cobb County keeps going up, but not as much as nearby counties and the city of Atlanta.

According to the Atlanta Regional Commission, Cobb added 8,100 new residents in 2018, bringing the overall county population to 766,400.

The ARC released its population estimates on Wednesday, and Cobb is the third-largest county in metro Atlanta. During the current decade, the county’s population has grown by 78,322, reflecting a slower growth rate than previous decades. The ARC said Cobb added more than 150,000 people each decade between 1980 and 2000.

Fulton and Gwinnett counties added the most residents, while the highest growth rates occurred in Cherokee and Henry counties and the City of Atlanta. The ARC figures the metro population now is 4.6 million people in the 10-county area (Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale, the city of Atlanta and 73 municipalities in those counties).

Cherokee County’s population grew more than Cobb’s for the first time, with 8,200 additional residents in 2018. Cherokee, which had a population of 91,000 in 1990, now is at 262,700, according to the ARC estimates.

For more information about ARC’s population estimates, check out ARC’s latest Regional Snapshot. The numbers are figured by using building permit data, school enrollment trends, occupancy rates and other data.

The ARC breakdown doesn’t include population trends within counties, except cities as noted above, so there isn’t a calculation for East Cobb.

When Cobb went over 750,000 in population in 2017, we estimated that the four main ZIP codes that make up East Cobb, plus the Cobb slice of Roswell 30075, eclipsed 200,000 people.

We looked at info on the very useful Georgia Demographics website, which has ZIP Code-specific data that isn’t as readily available from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Those figures have gone up by a few thousand, to around 208,000, according to the Georgia Demographics estimates. By ZIP Code, here’s how East Cobb stacks up now:

  • ZIP Code 30062: Population 67,248; Whites 68%, Blacks 12.4%, Asians 8.8%; Median household income $94,437; Average age 40.4 years old;
  • ZIP Code 30066: Population 54,126; Whites 70.3%, Blacks 10.2%, Hispanics 8.1%; Median household income $91,364; Average age 40.7 years old;
  • ZIP Code 30067: Population 46,888; Whites 53%, Blacks 28.2%, Hispanics 9.5%; Median household income $55,681; Average age 33.2 years old;
  • ZIP Code 30068: Population 32,006; Whites 77.3%, Asians 7.6%, Hispanics 6.6%, Blacks 6.1%; Median household income $108,105; Average age 44.5 years old.

The Roswell ZIP Code 30075 includes the extreme northeast portion of Cobb County, or about 8,100 residents of the 53,200 population of the ZIP Code. The Georgia Demographics data didn’t make any county splits, but 30075 overall breaks down as follows: Whites 77.7%, Blacks 9.5%, Hispanics 5.9%; Median income $109,786; Average age 42.9 years old.

The 30062 and 30066 populations were up slightly from two years ago, while 30067, 30068 and 30075 held steady or were down slightly.

For 2040, the ARC is projecting Cobb’s population to be at 885,062, an increase of 157,541 people since the 2015 Census update.

 

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Windy Hill-Terrell Mill Connector funding approved by Atlanta Regional Commission

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Windy Hill-Terrell Mill Connector
A Cobb DOT conceptual map of the proposed Windy Hill-Terrell Mill Connector that was approved by Cobb commissioners in 2017. 

The Atlanta Regional Commission announced today that its board has approved $44 million in transportation funding for Cobb County, including the proposed Windy Hill-Terrell Mill connector.

The funding goes through 2023. The Windy Hill-Terrell Mill connector is a planned 0.8-mile, four-lane road with an eight-foot raised median designed to relieve traffic in a busy corridor near Interstate 75 (link to project fact sheet). The project also includes a multi-use trail connecting to the Bob Callan Trail System and the Chattahoochee River.

It’s also designed to feed into the new Northwest Corridor Express Lanes that open in August and that will include an entrance/exit point at I-75 and Terrell Mill Road.

Some living in multi-family buildings and condos have been forced from their homes to make way for the connector and have expressed their displeasure not only with that prospect, but also how it has been handled.

Related story

The projected costs for the connector are $38 million, with $22 million, mostly in Cobb SPLOST funds, for continuing right-of-way acquisitions and $15 million from state sources in 2020 for construction. That’s when construction is scheduled to begin, and is expected to conclude in early 2022.

Other Cobb projects on the ARC approval list include the South Barrett Parkway Reliever near Town Center, Phase I of the Mableton Parkway Trail and the creation of Sunday service and additional Saturday service for the CobbLINC bus system.

The Cobb projects approved today by the ARC were part of a $400 million transportation package in the metro Atlanta area to be spent over the next five years.

 

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Before Cobb population reached 750k, East Cobb eclipsed 200k mark

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East Cobb ZIP Code map

Earlier this month, the Atlanta Regional Commission released updated county-by-county population updates, including Cobb County surpassing the 750,000 mark.

That’s a growth of more than 12,800 new residents in Cobb County in the last year, and up from 727,521 at the mid-decade U.S. Census update in 2015.

It was during that update two years ago that the ZIP codes making up East Cobb essentially passed 200,000 for the first time. This area, which spreads a little beyond the understood place-name identity of East Cobb (especially west of Interstate 75), includes 26 percent of the current Cobb population.

ZIP code 30062, located in the heart of East Cobb, has more people than Marietta, Cobb’s largest city.

If the East Cobb-area ZIP codes were incorporated, their present population of 205,763 would constitute the second-largest city in the metro region behind the city of Atlanta. (The subject of East Cobb cityhood has come up occasionally over the years, most recently when former Cobb Commission chairman Bill Byrne was vying for his old job in 2012. His “City of East Cobb” proposal went nowhere.)

The ARC calculations didn’t get granular below the county level, but we wanted to dig a little deeper and found the following breakdown of East Cobb-area ZIP codes at Georgia Demographics:

  • ZIP Code 30062: Population 65,206; Whites 69.5%, Blacks 13.3%, Hispanics 8.4%; Median household income $88,063; Average age 39.9 years old;
  • ZIP Code 30066: Population 52,930; Whites 73%, Blacks 10.2%, Hispanics 8,2%; Median household income $80,766; Average age 41 years old;
  • ZIP Code 30067: Population 47,556; Whites 49%, Blacks 31.1%, Hispanics 10.2%; Median household income $51,088; Average age 33.1 years old;
  • ZIP Code 30068: Population 32,068; Whites 76.6%, Asians 8%, Blacks 6.2%; Median household income $98,786; Average age 44.1 years old.

The Roswell ZIP Code 30075 includes the extreme northeast portion of Cobb County, or about 8,003 residents of the 54,858 population of the ZIP Code. The Georgia Demographics data didn’t make any county splits, but 30075 overall breaks down as follows: Whites 74.4%, Blacks 11.4%, Hispanics 7.2%; Median income $102,258; Average age 42.3 years old.

The useful City-Data.com site has even more demographic breakdowns by ZIP code, including median home cost, education levels, tax, pension and charity information, and more.

For 2040, the ARC is projecting Cobb’s population to be at 885,062, an increase of 157,541 people since the 2015 Census update.