Highlights from this snapshot:

  • Metro Atlanta counties generally are healthy, especially compared to the rest of the state.
  • The metro area also sees some of the lowest rates for premature death, relative to the rest of the state. This is tempered by extreme disparities in life expectancy for residents living just a few miles away from one another.
  • Disparities in life expectancy have predictable spatial patterns that strongly resemble socioeconomic patterns in the metro area.
  • Heart disease remains the number one cause of death in the state. The hospital discharge rate for this disease, however, has decreased in all counties over the past 10 years, as has the death rate.
  • Four metro cities — Atlanta, Johns Creek, Roswell and Sandy Springs — were included in the CDC’s 500 Cities Project, which provides small-area estimates for 27 health risks and conditions.

Click through the slides below or download the PDF Regional Snapshot: Public Health in Metro Atlanta.