The stunning city of Atlanta is situated in North Georgia, more specifically Fulton County. It is recognized as one of the most prominent American cities. Commonly referred to as the Big Peach, it pays homage to Georgia’s official state nickname and reflects the city well due to its size and influence on the rest of the Peach State.
Atlanta, Georgia has always been and still remains an incredibly popular destination for tourism, business, and other opportunities. There is an abundance of awesome things to do from a visitor’s perspective, and a multitude of exciting opportunities from a business and economic standpoint. This makes Atlanta a special place to start a company, do business with others in the city, visit, or call your new home.
19 Facts About Atlanta Georgia
Thanks to Atlanta’s fantastic entertainment and sports scene, extremely high quality of life, reasonable cost of living (when compared with most of the top U.S. cities), accessibility, and the many opportunities presented, it is no wonder Atlanta is continuously growing in popularity and isn’t slowing down, with hundreds of thousands of people moving to the iconic city each year.
However, there is still much more to Atlanta than meets the eye, so, here is our list consisting of 19 interesting facts about Atlanta Georgia that you might not have known about!
1. Atlanta is the largest city within the state, boasting a population (over 524,000) almost 5 times the size of the second-largest state, Augusta. In addition to the city being the largest in the state, it is also the state capital, meaning that it acts as the seat to Georgia’s government.
2. The city’s official symbol is a phoenix, which represents the city rising from the ashes, which it literally had to after General Sherman burned down the city during the Civil War, with only around 400 buildings surviving!
3. Original names that this famous city has adopted over the years are “Terminus and Marthasville”, the name “Marthasville” originates from Governor Wilson Lumpkin’s daughter.
4. Now you know the old names given to the Big Peach, it makes sense to know the origins of the city’s current name. The name “Atlanta” pays homage to railroad engineer J. Edgar Thomson, the name is also thought to be a shortened version of “Atlantica Pacifica”, which translates to “Atlantic Pacific”.
5. The 4th of July celebrations kick off in a slightly healthier way in the city of Atlanta than in most other places, with the famed AJC Peachtree Road Race taking place on the morning of this historical day every year. The event first began in 1970 and is now the largest 10k running event in the world, with over 60,000 participants taking part annually.
6. Atlanta boasts the third-highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies out of any city in the United States, falling just behind New York and Houston.
7. Atlanta acts as a major hub for travel due to the city’s fantastic positioning within the U.S., being around a 3-hour flight from the majority of top U.S. cities and states. This is why Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is considered to be one of the world’s busiest airport.
8. Atlanta is actually Georgia’s fifth capital city, with the following cities claiming the title before the Big Peach:
- Savannah
- Augusta
- Louisville
- Milledgeville
9. Weird and wonderful laws have been adopted by many states over a number of years, with a lot of them decriminalized in recent years because, well, it would be just strange to see people get into trouble for committing some of these crimes! Atlanta is certainly no stranger to these, with it being once illegal to put an ice cream cone in your back pocket, oh, and you also would have been sent to jail for tying a Giraffe to a telephone pole.
10. The fastest-ever baseball game in the history of the famous sport went down in Atlanta when the Mobile Sea Gulls were the 2-1 victor over the Atlanta Crackers in only 32 minutes.
11. Besides Chicago, Atlanta has more shopping center space per capita than any other U.S. city.
12. Downtown Atlanta is one of the most unique in the country. There is so much character and uniqueness to this famous area of the city, such as incredibly tall buildings and skyscrapers, a historical library, Georgia State University, and the iconic floating restaurant.
Important Facts About Atlanta Georgia
13. When pro football eventually came to the city, owners considered a multitude of different names, over 500 to be precise. With the famous “Falcons” nickname being suggested by a schoolteacher as it was a bird she considered to be “proud and dignified”.
14. Atlanta was the only city to be destroyed as an effect of the Civil War after General William Sherman set the iconic city on fire in 1864 during the Battle of Atlanta. The after-effects were devastating, with the fire destroying around 40% of the city, and over 3,000 buildings!
15. The infamous fizzy-drink Coca-Cola was founded and invented in Atlanta (January 29, 1892).
16. There are more than 70 different streets in Atlanta that all go by the name of “Peachtree”, so, be careful when you are using Google Maps to find an address on Peach Tree street as you may be wandering around for some time!
17. Despite not being the main nickname associated with the state, many refer to Atlanta as the “City in a Forest”, with more than 100,000 shaded trees planted and distributed throughout the city. The National Forest Service has claimed Atlanta to be “the most heavily forested urban area in the country”, covering a staggering 47%+ of the city.
18. Atlanta is home to many awesome music festivals, such as SweetWater 420 Fest, Shaky Knees Music Festival, and Atlanta Jazz Festival to name just a few.
19. The famous Chattahoochee River runs through three entire states, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama begins its journey at Union County fairly close to the city’s metropolitan area.
Economic Facts About Atlanta Georgia
There is much to consider when looking into the business and economic facts about Atlanta Georgia as the city has a lot of positive business and economic attributes. This has created a strong and pro-business environment for entrepreneurs and workers alike.
Over the past several decades Atlanta’s popularity has been increasing at a constant rate, with more and more people deciding to call the Big Peach their new home, and place of business. With solid infrastructure, an ever-impressive education system, higher salaries than the majority of other cities, and one of the best qualities of life, Atlanta really does boast an incredible and expansive economic environment.
Here is our List of Economic Facts about Atlanta Georgia’s Economy:
- Atlanta’s metropolitan area GDP is over $371 billion, which is higher than a lot of other states, never mind cities!
- Atlanta has a progressive income tax rate ranging between 1% to 5.75%.
- The median household income in Atlanta is around $65,000.
- Atlanta’s metro area ranks 10th out of all 50 states for its economic output (Visual Capitalist).
- Three majorly important industries in Atlanta are Finance, Healthcare & biomedical science, and manufacturing.
- The average house price in Atlanta is $311,092, however, this number is seasonally adjusted. The latest prices can be found on Zillow’s website.
- Atlanta’s sales tax rate is 8.9%.
- Atlanta’s corporate income tax rate is 6%.
- Georgia as a whole has been voted the best state to conduct business for a number of years now.
- There are 30 Fortune 500/1000 companies and counting.
- Many say that the unofficial second nickname of Georgia, the “Empire State of the South” is derived from the economic successes of both Georgia and the city of Atlanta.
- Over 51% of the city’s population is African American.
- Atlanta was home to the 1996 Summer Olympics, which encompassed the majority of the Atlanta area and helped build the foundations to the city’s ever-growing economy.
- The minimum wage in Atlanta Georgia is $7.25 per hour, however, there are some exemptions.
All of these economic facts about Atlanta Georgia provide plenty of valid reasons why hundreds of thousands of people decide to move to the city to either start a new business or franchise or for work opportunities, and it is difficult to argue with any of them!
Thanks for taking a look at our 19+ Atlanta Georgia facts! If you have some facts and fun information regarding Atlanta’s past and present that we have not covered, make sure to comment below and we will add them to the page.
