Demographics
As of 2005, Georgia has an estimated population of 9,072,576, which is an increase of 154,447, or 1.7%, from the prior year and an increase of 885,760, or 10.8%, since the year 2000. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 376,105 people (that is 718,764 births minus 342,659 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 425,510 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 192,844 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 232,666 people.
Georgia is the 9th most populous state. Its population has grown 36% (2.35 million) from its 1990 levels, making it one of the fastest-growing states in the country. More than half of the state’s population lives in the Atlanta metro area.
Race
The racial makeup of Georgia:
- 62.6% White non-Hispanic
- 28.7% Black
- 5.3% Hispanic
- 2.1% Asian
- 1.4% Mixed race
- 0.3% Native American
The state’s five largest ancestries are African, American, British, German, and Irish.
As of 2000, 90.1% of Georgia residents age 5 and older speak English at home and 5.6% speak Spanish. French is the third most spoken language at 0.6%, followed by German at 0.4% and Vietnamese at 0.4%.
7.3% of its population were reported as under 5 years of age, 26.5% under 18, and 9.6% were 65 or older.
Females make up approximately 50.8% of the population.
Historically, about half of Georgia’s population was comprised of African-Americans (who, prior to the Civil War, were almost exclusively enslaved). The Great Migration of blacks from the rural South to the industrial North from 1914-1970, as well as migration of other races into Georgia after 1970, reduced the black proportion of the population. Today, African-Americans remain the most populous race in many rural counties in middle, east-central, southwestern, and low-country Georgia, as well as in the city of Atlanta and its core southern suburbs.
White Georgians, like other Southerners, usually describe their ancestry on the census questionnaire as “American”, “United States”, or simply “Southern”. Whites of American ancestry are prominent in the northern mountains and upper Piedmont as well as in certain sandy and swampy areas of the southeast. Georgians of British ancestry dominate the northern suburbs of Atlanta. The early settlement of very large numbers of Scots-Irish Americans during colonial days and in subsequent years has strongly influenced the state’s culture.
