The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
How Hispanic population will help drive future growth
Atlanta Regional Commission analysts say most of 1.8M residents expected to join metro area by 2050 will be people of color.
Diversity is one of Atlanta’s strengths, and that’s expected to only increase in the decades to come.
The Atlanta Regional Commission forecasts that the 21-county metro area will add 1.8 million people by 2050, bringing the capital of the Southeast to 7.9 million residents. The regional planning agency expects the growth will be driven by the region’s career opportunities and desirability among other major cities, especially among people of color.
“Almost all of the growth that we’re going to be getting over the next 30 years is going to be coming from populations of color,” said Mike Carnathan, the ARC’s managing director of research and analytics.
Hispanics and Latinos are predicted to lead that charge, nearly doubling their share of metro Atlanta’s population. Those groups currently make up 12% of the region’s population, but they’re expected to grow to 21% by 2050.
Asians and other minority groups are also expected to make sizable gains during that time frame, while white and Black residents will make up a smaller proportion of metro Atlanta than they do today. Not only will Atlanta become more diverse, it’ll grow older, with more living past age 75 due to modern medicine and health care access.
The ARC’s predictions center around recent demographic trends and anticipated growth to fill 856,000 additional jobs expected to come to metro Atlanta by 2050. ARC analysts predict transplants and new graduates will fill the bulk of those new jobs.
Atlanta, often heralded as “The city too busy to hate,” is hailed by business leaders for its home-grown diversity, something employers can struggle to find among talent pools elsewhere. The expectation that metro Atlanta will further diversity — with Hispanics, Latinos and Asians also spreading out in greater numbers in the suburbs — only serves to further Atlanta’s reputation as a beacon of diversity, experts say.
“What makes Atlanta so appealing? Its talent,” Southern Co. President and CEO Chris Womack told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in November. “How do we continue to make Atlanta appealing? More diverse talent.”
The ARC population estimates are more than just an attempt to peer into the future; they help inform elected officials on how to plan for that future.
Government leaders use these long-term projections as a road map for how to prepare for this potential influx of new residents, informing policy decisions on transportation, infrastructure, housing and zoning. The ARC estimates that $168 billion of infrastructure projects are needed across metro Atlanta to facilitate the expected growth. The people who make up the metro Atlanta of tomorrow are also critical since specific communities have different needs.
“If you look at the composition of the people today, it looks a lot different than it did in 1990 or 1980,” Carnathan said. “And it’s going to look a lot different in 2050 than it does today.”
Importance of birth rates
There are only two ways for a population to grow: migration and procreation.
The number of people moving to cities and countries has dipped because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Atlanta and other Southeastern cities have seen a steady supply of transplants with no signs of reversing. Carnathan said there’s a lack of data on why specific groups move to metro Atlanta rather than other places.
But birth rates have clear patterns.
Decades ago, white Georgians became the first group to see fertility rates dip below replacement, meaning average birth rates dropped below two children. Asians dropped below that line in the early 1990s, while Blacks followed suit before 2010. Hispanics and Latinos were the last to see their birth rates drop, which is why they are expected to make up much of the region’s forthcoming population boom.
Gwinnett County is currently home to the largest proportion of Hispanic and Latino residents with more than 200,000. By 2050, Cobb and DeKalb counties are expected to meet that mark, with five other counties in Atlanta’s core and suburbs surpassing 50,000 Hispanic and Latino residents.
Santiago Marquez, CEO of the Latin American Association, said the projections prompted his organization to launch its first comprehensive growth campaign in decades, because more counties will need robust Latino-focused services.
The Buford Highway corridor, which cuts through DeKalb and Gwinnett, has been the longtime hub for the metro’s immigrant communities, including many first-generation Hispanics and Latinos. The Latin American Association’s primary office in Brookhaven has served those communities for decades, offering workforce training, housing assistance, immigration services and education. But Marquez said other communities will need to replicate those services if ARC’s projections become reality.
“In those counties, there tends to be very little, if any, services that are being provided for the Latino community,” he said. “That’s really shaping our strategy going forward.”
Nikki Haley assailed Donald Trump’s tightening control over the Republican Party on Friday, claiming that the former president intended to use the national committee as “his piggy bank for his personal court cases.”
Haley’s comments were part of her latest broadside against Trump, highlighting the former president’s many legal troubles after his crushing defeat Friday in a civil fraud case in New York in which he was ordered to pay a penalty of nearly $355 million, plus interest, which would exceed $450 million. Trump already spent roughly $50 million in donor money on legal fees in 2023, a fact that Haley has used as a cudgel against him on the campaign trail.
“Now we see him trying to get control of the RNC so that he can continue not to have to pay his own legal fees,” Haley said in an interview on CNN. “The problem is that doesn’t help us win any seats in the House, in the Senate or anything else.”
“The RNC’s practically broke now as it is,” she added, “and so this is a bigger issue for the Republican Party.”
With just over a week before the primary in her home state of South Carolina, and facing daunting challenges in the Super Tuesday states that will follow, Haley has escalated her attacks against Trump, painting the former president — who is facing 91 felony charges and at least one criminal trial next month — as a serious liability to the Republican Party who will doom its election-year prospects if he is at the top of the ticket.
Georgia’s clean energy ecosystem is about to get bigger.
On Thursday, Gov. Brian Kemp’s office announced Solarcycle, which recycles solar panel components, plans to build a glass manufacturing plant in Cedartown, about 60 miles northwest of Atlanta. The $344 million solar glass complex will employ more than 600 full-time staffers, a news release said.
“There is no question that solar panel manufacturing is booming in the state of Georgia,” Solarcycle CEO and co-founder Suvi Sharma said in the release. “We are thrilled to join the team and build our recycled solar glass plant in Cedartown, which will bring hundreds of good-paying jobs to Georgia and help the industry in its goals to build fully American-made clean energy solutions.”
The facility will rise in Cedartown North Business Park along U.S. 27. Information about incentives offered to Solarcycle was not immediately available, but it is likely the company qualifies for tax credits for newly created jobs, among other inducements.
Thursday’s announcement is the second major one made by Solarcycle last week. On Monday, Solarcycle announced a partnership with Qcells, a huge maker of solar panels with facilities in Dalton and one under construction in Bartow County. Solarcycle plans to work with Qcells to keep components from damaged or decommissioned panels out of landfills and instead reuse much of the material for new panels.
Solarcycle operates recycling facilities in Texas and Arizona and uses patented technology that it says can allow the company “to extract up to 95% of the value from used solar panels” for reuse in the solar manufacturing supply chain.
At its future Polk County facility, Solarcycle said, it will make specialized glass for crystalline-silicon photovoltaics and sell it back to panel-makers in the U.S. The company said it will be able to produce up to 6 gigawatts worth of solar glass annually. The facility will be the first from Solarcycle that will produce glass and also recycle panel components.
“Solarcycle’s first-of-its-kind facility is a transformational investment for the Polk County community and will help drive its economy for years to come,” Kemp said. “In Georgia, our strong energy mix is one of the key reasons our state has attracted generational investments in recent years. We will keep working to secure our power supply through exciting projects like this one.”
Solarcycle’s partnership with Qcells will make solar manufacturing more sustainable, the companies said, by keeping waste out of landfills and returning usable material to the supply chain.
Solar is the fastest-growing source of new clean energy in the U.S. But what to do with aging solar panels after they need to be replaced is one challenge for the industry. Without recycling, decommissioned solar installations could produce 170,000 to 1 million tons of waste in the U.S. by 2030, according to one estimate.
Plant updates and information about jobs will be available online at solarcycle.us/careers.
The facility will be the first from Solarcycle that will produce glass and also recycle panel components.