It is in cities where the foundations of our economy are laid, where our identity as a people is anchored, and where we live, work, play and enrich our lives.
The 2025 edition of The Value of Cities provides a snapshot of the impact cities have in Georgia and the investments they make to secure a vibrant economic future.
While cities make up just 9% of the state's overall land area, the more than 5 million people who reside in Georgia cities represent 45% of the total state population.
Cities are dense economic and cultural hubs that provide 70% of jobs in Georgia and see their population increase by 24% in the daytime due to commuting. Cities provide services to both their "daytime population" and their resident population.
On the whole, cities also tend to be more racially diverse: there are 1.1 White residents for every Black resident; whereas in unincorporated areas, there are 2.4 White residents for every Black resident.
Three-quarters of Georgia cities have a population of 5000 or less, on par with the country as a whole. These small communities that together serve over 513,000 Georgians rely heavily on regional partnerships and intergovernmental resources to provide key services like broadband and electricity.
Only 4% of Georgia cities have a population above 50,000, but together they represent over 2.3 million Georgians.
In 2024, voters in 37 additional counties supported the passage of the Special-Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST), choosing to tax themselves to pay for capital projects. Over the last five years, $10.3 billion in SPLOST revenues have been distributed to counties and cities. Sales tax combined with property tax continue to be the source of over half of the total municipal budget.
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In 2022, the Census Bureau redefined the criteria for urban and rural areas, the classification of which plays a role in how federal dollars are distributed. The population threshold to classify as an urban areas was lifted to 5,000 from 2,500. The 2020 Census urban areas following this update can be found here. Some cities below 5,000 may be an urban area if they meet certain new housing criteria of having at least 2,000 housing units. This PBS article provides an overview of the reclassification.