The metro Atlanta metro area added 890,000 residents from April 1, 2000, to July 1, 2006, the largest numerical gain of the nation’s 361 metro areas, according to population estimates for all metro areas released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The metro area (Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta) was the nation’s ninth largest as of July 1, 2006 with a population of 5.1 million.

“We’ve got the world’s busiest airport, the third-highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the nation, cutting-edge research universities that attract young professionals from all over the globe, the lowest cost of doing business in the nation — and plenty of sunshine,” said Sam A. Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. “Combine all that with the fact that Atlanta is the business capital of the Southeast, and it’s easy to see why people are coming here in droves.”

Over the last six years, metro Atlanta has added an average of more than 142,000 people annually, edging out metros such as Dallas; Houston; Phoenix; Riverside, Calif.; Los Angeles; Washington, D.C., New York; Miami and Chicago.

Gainesville, Ga., was the ninth-fastest growing metro area, growing by 24.4 percent.

New York was the most populous metro area on July 1, 2006, with 18.8 million people, followed by Los Angeles (13 million) and Chicago (9.5 million).

The 50 fastest-growing metro areas were almost evenly distributed between just two regions — 25 in the South and 23 in the West . Of the 50 fastest-growing metro areas, none were in the Northeast.

From: Atlanta Business Chronicle

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