Friday, April 18, 2003

Fulton's growth slows

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

Fulton County remained the state's most populous county in figures released yesterday by the Census Bureau.

But the county only grew by 254 residents to 825,431 from July 1, 2001, to July 1, 2002.

While Fulton's growth rate remained stagnant, its neighbors to the south grew at a much faster clip.

Fayette County added just 2,033 people, the Census estimated, for a growth rate of 2.1 percent.

Fayette's population was estimated at 96,611 on July 1 last year. Coweta County's was 97,771, for a growth rate of 3.7 percent over the previous year.

Coweta added 3,699 people during the period, the Census said.

This is the first year that Coweta has surpassed Fayette in population.

Fulton's stagnant growth was mirrored in many of the state's largest urban counties. Both Columbus-Muscogee County and Augusta-Richmond County lost population during the year, while DeKalb and Chatham, like Fulton, had negligible growth.

But three Metro Atlanta "exurban" counties, including one Southside county, continued to rank among the top 10 fastest growing counties in the nation.

Henry County ranked third in growth nationally, adding 9,280 people for a total of 139,699, or a rate of 7.1 percent.

Forsyth County north of Atlanta ranked fourth, adding 7,741 people, bringing its population to 116,924, also a rate of 7.1 percent.

And Newton County, east of Atlanta on I-20, made the list at No. 7 nationally, growing by 4,451 people to 71,594.

Rockwell County in Texas, near Dallas, recorded the fastest growth in the nation, at 7.9 percent.

Fayette County's growth was still better than the state as a whole. Georgia grew by about 150,000 people during the period to about 8.5 million, the Census estimated, or a rate of just 1.8 percent. That's significantly less than the record-setting growth the state recorded in the late 1990s, and the first significant slowdown in Georgia growth in more than a decade credited with the state's struggling service economy, hit hard after 9/11 last year.

On the web: www.census.gov.