As a whole, metro Atlanta is becoming increasingly diverse—but what about racial and ethnic diversity for millennials/young professionals, age 20-34? Text highlights are below, but scroll down to view trends and county-specific data in our 2010-2015 Population Change by Race: Total Population and Age 20-34 tool.

Let’s take a look at overall trends from 2010-2015 first—across all age groups:

From 2010-2015, across the 20-county region, the Black population experienced the greatest total increase in the 20-county region, adding almost 200,000 residents (a 12% increase). 180,000 of this 20-county increase in the Black population occurred in the 10 ARC Region counties. The second greatest increase came from the white population at 85,000. Total Hispanic population increased by 60,000 (a 10% increase).

“Asian” and “Other” (including Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, and persons of two or more races) populations, in total, had the largest percentage increases from 2010-2015, at 27% and 23% respectively, while growing more slowly in absolute terms.

For millennials/young professionals, the story gets even more interesting:

The net change for ages 20-34 across the 20 counties was about 74,500, for a 6.5% increase– compared to 8.3% across all age groups. The Black population was, again, the fastest growing race for this age group, when looking at absolute numbers, at a net of 54,600 for the 2010-2015 period, followed by the white population with a gain of about 25,700. In terms of percentage increases, “Other” grew at 28% followed by the Asian population at 24%.

The most notable trend during this time period occurs in the Hispanic population aged 20-34; in most counties, there has been a decrease (although the overall Hispanic population has increased). In fact, the region has lost 26,000 Hispanic millennials/young professionals (a 15% decrease) from 2010-2015.

Many counties have experienced a decrease in Hispanic millennials/young professionals:

The most significant loss in Hispanic population age 20-34 has been in the core urban counties. For example, the Hispanic 20-34 population in DeKalb County dropped by over 10,000 from 2010-2015, a 40% decrease, while the County’s overall Hispanic population also declined by a much more modest 5%. In Fulton County Hispanics across all ages increased by 3,000 (a 4% increase), but had a 5,000 decline in the 20-34 age group (a 23% decrease). Gwinnett County added the most total Hispanics of any county 2010-2015, at nearly 22,000 (for a 13% increase). Gwinnett’s 20-34 Hispanic age group, however, declined by about 4,500 from 2010-2015 (for a 10% decrease).

To sum things up in general, racial trends for millennials/young professionals reflect those of the total population, except for the decline in Hispanics age 20-34.

In posts to come, we will take a deeper dive in the Census estimate trends 2010-2015 for other age groupings.

View data and trends: Click through the tabs in the tool below to view net and percentage change by race for the total population and age 20-34. The third tab compares changes in the Hispanic population (total and ages 20-34) by county.
 Source: U.S. Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Program (PEP)