The Census Bureau recently published a brief on the impact of the pandemic on commuting and how related workplace changes affected a few of the country’s most populous metros: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Dallas.  But they left out Atlanta! Let’s remedy that–what did this effect look like in Atlanta?

For the answer, we look to the American Community Survey (ACS) 1-year estimates and calculate an indicator called the “commuter-adjusted” population. Simply put, it measures what the population in a given area looks like during the workday, and is calculated as:
[# Residential population] + [# of workers who commute in] – [# of workers who commute out]

We know, for example, that workers tend to commute into the City of Atlanta at a much higher rate than they commute out. Indeed, in 2021, the city had about a 44% higher population during the workday thanks to commuters.

This graph below (Figure 1) compares the change in resident and commuter-adjusted population between 2019 and 2021 for the four largest counties in the Atlanta region as well as for the City of Atlanta itself: [1]

Comparing the shifts in overall population and the commuter-adjusted population between 2019 and 2021, we see some stark effects of the pandemic! Despite having a slight increase in residential population, Fulton County lost over 125,000 commuter-adjusted population, or about 8.5% off of its 2019 level. The impact is even greater for the city of Atlanta, where the commuter-adjusted population dropped by almost 137,000, or declined by just over 16%.

The commuter-adjusted population increased in the remaining core counties. Growth was especially pronounced in Gwinnett County, where the commuter-adjusted population grew 65,000 or almost 7.5%. This was in part due to population increase over the period, but was mostly the result of a 63% increase in the number of people working from home.

For more discussion about trends in telecommuting, see our previous post here. 

[1] The ACS 1-year estimates required for the calculation are only available for these counties, plus the city of Atlanta.