Sweeping racial and ethnic change ahead for metro Atlanta

Kindergartners (from left) Ian DeOliviera, Adam Ajayi, Ximena Benitez and Eden Sterling, all 6, at Carman Adventist School in Marietta. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

Credit: Hyosub Shin

Credit: Hyosub Shin

Kindergartners (from left) Ian DeOliviera, Adam Ajayi, Ximena Benitez and Eden Sterling, all 6, at Carman Adventist School in Marietta. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

As part of its new RE:Race coverage, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has created a data visualization that shows the racial and ethnic changes sweeping Georgia counties. 
The tool tracks populations of various groups from 1990 forward and projects them to 2050.

The projections may surprise you.

The first thing we noticed was that Cobb County is about to "tip" to majority minority. The projections, by Woods & Poole Economics Inc. of Washington D.C., show that Cobb's white majority will become a minority in 2021.

Other notable results:

  • By 2050, Gwinnett County will be 14 percent white.
  • In about 2033, the state of Georgia will become majority minority.
  • In 33 years, fully one-quarter of residents of Fulton County are expected to be people of Asian descent.
  • DeKalb County is expected to go from 52 percent white in 1990 to 29 percent white in 2020.

You can watch it all unfold with our exclusive visualization.