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In migration terms, Georgia, like neighboring North Carolina, is a "turn-around state."" After serving as a population export zone for nearly 150 years, since the 1970s it has been a population magnet. In the 1820s and 1830s, Georgia expelled the Cherokee nation along the "Trail of Tears," followed soon by tens of thousands of enslaved Georgians who were sold and marched westward in chains to expand the cotton kingdom, another trail of tears. The state's population expanded gradually after that, dependent almost entirely on what is called "natural increase," a euphemism for the work of mothers. Out-migration numbers routinely exceeded in-migration. African Americans were more likely to leave than whites and went in different directions, Black folks moving north, White folks mostly to other southern states.
In the 1960s, things begin to change as the opening phase of sunbelt shift attracted the first substantial increase of newcomers in more than a century. That attraction increased in each decade since (as can be seen by watching the dark and light blue portions of the chart). And Georgia's population numbers began to surge, growing my more than half million a decade in the 1970s and 1980s; by more than a million in the decades after 1990.
Newcomers now outnumber natives in the adult population and nearly match them overall. Click between 1950 and 2022 to see the dimensions of the turn around. African Americans have been an important part of this. The Great Migration out of the South in the first 70 years of the 20th century, has been followed by what is sometimes called the Great Reversal and Georgia has been at its center. In 2022, 40% of Georgia's Black population had moved from other states, especially Florida, New York, and Alabama. In another break with the past, Georgia has also attracted people from other countries, notably Mexico, India, Jamaica, Korea, and Germany.
Notice in the visualization below that the dark blue rectangle representing population born in state grows and then shrinks throughout the 170 year period, reflecting the rhythms of migration. This visualization tool is hosted by Tableau Public and may take a few seconds to respond. If slow, refresh the page. Click here for other state migration histories
Note on data issues: The 1850 and 1860 censuses counted only "free persons" so it was not until 1870 that reliable data on African Americans became available. Native Americans were not routinely included in decennial censuses until 1900. Birth state information is missing for about 5% of US-born persons in 1970 and about 2% in 1960. The missing are designated "United States,ns" in the charts.
Source: U.S. Census data from the Minnesota Population Center's IPUMS USA: Steven Ruggles, Katie Genadek, Ronald Goeken, Josiah Grover, and Matthew Sobek. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 6.0 [Machine-readable database]. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2015, the following samples: 1850 1%, 1860 1%, 1870 1%, 1880 1% 1900 1%, 1910 1%, 1920 1%, 1930 1%, 1940 1%, 1950 1%, 1960 5%, 1970 1% State FM1, 1980 5% State, 1990 5% State, 2000 1%, 2010 ACS, 2022 ACS.
Maps, data development, calculations: James Gregory.