Atlanta metropolitan area in the context of "Clarke County, Georgia"

Athens is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia. Downtown Athens lies about 70 miles (110 km) northeast of downtown Atlanta. The University of Georgia, the state's flagship public university and an R1 research institution, is in Athens and contributed to its initial growth. In 1991, after a vote the preceding year, the original City of Athens abandoned its charter to form a unified government with Clarke County, referred to jointly as Athens–Clarke County, where it is the county seat.

As of 2021, the Athens-Clarke County's official website's population of the consolidated city-county (all of Clarke County except Winterville and a portion of Bogart) was 128,711. Athens is the sixth-most populous city in Georgia, and the principal city of the Athens metropolitan area, which had a 2020 population of 215,415, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Metropolitan Athens is a component of the larger Atlanta–Athens–Clarke County–Sandy Springs Combined Statistical Area.

Georgia (/ˈdʒɔːrdʒə/ JOR-jə) is a state in the Southeastern, South Atlantic, and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the northwest, North Carolina and South Carolina to the northeast, Atlantic Ocean to the east, Florida to the south, and Alabama to the west. Of the 50 U.S. states, Georgia is the 24th-largest by area and eighth-most populous. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, its 2024 estimated population was 11,180,878. Atlanta, a global city, is both the state's capital and its largest city. The Atlanta metropolitan area, with a population greater than 6.3 million people in 2023, is the eighth most populous metropolitan area in the United States and contains about 57% of Georgia's entire population. Other major metropolitan areas in the state include Augusta, Savannah, Columbus, and Macon.

The Province of Georgia was established in 1732, with its first settlement occurring in 1733 when Savannah was founded. By 1752, Georgia had transitioned into a British royal colony, making it the last and southernmost of the original Thirteen Colonies. Named in honor of King George II of Great Britain, the Georgia Colony extended from South Carolina down to Spanish Florida and westward to French Louisiana along the Mississippi River. On January 2, 1788, Georgia became the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution.

Lawrenceville is a city in and the county seat of Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States. It is a suburb of Atlanta, located about 30 miles (50 km) northeast of downtown Atlanta. It was incorporated on December 15, 1821. As of the 2020 census, the population of Lawrenceville was 30,629.

The African-American middle class refers to those within the African-American community who have achieved middle-class status in the U.S. class structure. It is a societal level within the African-American community that primarily began to develop in the early 1960s, when the ongoing Civil Rights Movement led to the outlawing of de jure racial segregation. The African American middle class exists throughout the United States, particularly in the Northeast and in the South, with the largest contiguous majority black middle-class neighborhoods being in the Washington, DC suburbs in Maryland. The African American middle class is also prevalent in the Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Memphis, Dallas, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, San Antonio, and Chicago areas. The black middle class has experienced significant growth since the 1960s, accompanied by a decrease in the percentage of impoverished blacks. In the early 1960s, approximately 9 to 12 percent of blacks were considered middle class, whereas over half of the black population was categorized as poor. By the conclusion of the 20th century, around one-third of blacks were identified as middle class, with about 25 percent still classified as poor. In comparison, more than two-thirds of whites belong to the middle class, and less than 10 percent are classified as poor. Therefore, although the class structure of African American in the post-civil rights era bears some resemblance to that of whites, it is only a partial reflection, as the white middle class is at least double the size of the black middle class, and the proportion of African American living in poverty is twice that of white people.

The Savannah metropolitan area, officially named the Savannah metropolitan statistical area by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, is a metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is centered on the city of Savannah and encompasses three counties: Bryan, Chatham, and Effingham.

The population of this area was 404,798 at the 2020 U.S. census, an increase of more than 57,000 residents from the 2010 census figure of 347,611. This was a gain of 16.45% over the same decade, making Savannah the fastest-growing metro area in the state for the period 2010–2020. (It was followed by Atlanta, Gainesville, and Warner Robins.) Savannah is the third most populous of Georgia's fourteen metropolitan areas (after Atlanta and Augusta).Savannah and its metropolitan area form the largest economic sector of Coastal Georgia, followed by the Brunswick and Hinesville metropolitan areas. Two of these areas, Savannah and Hinesville, form the core of the Savannah–Hinesville–Statesboro combined statistical area. The combined statistical area had a 2020 population of 608,239.

Chatham County (/ˈtʃætəm/ CHAT-əm) is the easternmost county in the U.S. state of Georgia, on the state's Atlantic coast. The county seat and largest city is Savannah. One of the original counties of Georgia, Chatham County was created February 5, 1777, and is named after William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham.

The U.S. Census Bureau's 2024 estimated population for Chatham County was 307,336 residents. The official 2020 U.S. census population was 295,291 residents, an increase of 11.4% from the official 2010 population of 265,128. Chatham County is the fifth-most-populous county in Georgia, and the state's most populous outside the Atlanta metropolitan area. The county is the core of the Savannah metropolitan area.

Decatur (/dəˈkeɪtər/) is a city in and the county seat of DeKalb County, Georgia, United States, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. With a population of 24,928 in the 2020 census, the municipality is sometimes assumed to be larger since multiple ZIP Codes in unincorporated DeKalb County bear Decatur as the address.

The city is served by three MARTA rail stations (Decatur, East Lake, and Avondale). The city is located approximately five miles (eight kilometers) northeast of Downtown Atlanta and shares its western border with both the city of Atlanta (the Kirkwood and Lake Claire neighborhoods) and unincorporated DeKalb County. The Druid Hills neighborhood is to the northwest of Decatur.