The Urban Institute has compiled data on financial health & wealth at a the Census Public Use Microdata Area (or PUMA). According to the Urban Institute’s website, this dataset is comprised of “nationally representative panel of deidentified, consumer-level records from a major credit bureau.”

The original dataset features nearly a dozen metrics related to household wealth, access to credit, and debt burden. From this dataset, we have created an interactive map below which is a filtered subset of the variables and shows only the PUMAs for the Atlanta region. The map also contains race/ethnicity layers for each PUMA. Scroll below the map to find our conclusions from the data!

Note: The Rockdale & Newton County PUMA is a combined geography according to the US Census. As such, this entire PUMA is included in the map below, despite the fact that Newton County is not considered one of the eleven metropolitan Atlanta counties.

Map

Findings

Here are some of our main takeaways from the data shown in the map above:

  1. Note the inter-related nature among the financial metrics shown. While this shouldn’t surprise us, it is still worth noting how debt delinquency, rates of emergency saving, and credit scores seem to align quite neatly. Indeed, the PUMA with the greatest debt delinquency (55.5%), the lowest savings rate (36.2%), and the lowest median credit score (608) all occur within the same PUMA (Fulton County – Atlanta City Central). On aggregate, the same is true on the other end of the spectrum for PUMAs in the northeast portion of the metro Atlanta region.
  2. The PUMA featuring the highest median net worth is Northeast Cobb County, with a staggering median net worth of $522,255. This figure is nearly 25% higher than the next highest median net worth of Northeast Fulton County (Johns Creek City). Equally astounding is the fact that the median net worth of Northeast Cobb County is an order of magnitude greater than the neighboring PUMA to the southwest: Marietta City with a median net worth of only $32,184.
  3. The scale in disparity among PUMAs with regards to their proportion of residents with delinquent debt is jarring. In and around central Atlanta, this share hovers just over 50%. By contrast, wealthier (and more northern) PUMAs feature proportions at or even below 20%.
  4. When comparing this to the race and ethnicity of the PUMAs, we note that the regions with a greater sense of financial wellbeing are also areas with greater concentrations of Asian and White populations, with the inverse being true of areas with greater concentrations of Black populations. This finding highlights the ongoing and stubborn racial wealth gap, chronicled here and countless other places across the country.
  5. A moderate amount of variance can exist in PUMAs which are similarly situated. Take, for example, Douglas and Fayette Counties. Only separated by a slice of Fulton County, these are both situated among the south and western portion of the Atlanta region. Despite having similar proportions of Asian and Hispanic populations, Douglas County features nearly double the proportion of Black residents as that of Fayette County (46% vs. 23%), and also shows a higher proportion of the population with delinquent debt, a lower proportion of the population with emergency savings in excess of $2,000, and a lower mean credit score.
  6. In a similar vein, Atlanta City North and Central are 2 adjoining PUMAs in central Fulton County with wildly different financial health metrics. The former (which features such neighborhoods as Buckhead and Mayfair) features roughly half the debt delinquency and over twice the savings rate as the latter. The City of Atlanta clearly features areas in close proximity to one another with vastly different financial health indicators.