Metro Atlanta - Counties

Counties

The above-listed counties are included in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Gainesville CSA (Bold counties are also in the somewhat smaller Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta MSA ); however most other entities define a much smaller metropolitan area by including only the counties which have the densest suburban development. Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb, and Clayton are the five original counties, and continue to be the core of the metro area. These five counties along with five more (Cherokee, Douglas, Fayette, Henry and Rockdale) are members of the Atlanta Regional Commission, a weak metropolitan government agency which also is a regional planning agency. The ten ARC counties and five more (Bartow, Coweta, Hall, Forsyth, Paulding) are part of the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District, created in 2001. The 14 counties listed above with under 60,000 residents are usually not included in any other metropolitan definition except the OMB/Census Bureau's CSA. Hall County was originally the Gainesville, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, but with astronomical growth to over 180,000 residents, is now part of the Atlanta CSA. The official tourism website of the State of Georgia features a "Metro Atlanta" tourism region that includes only nine counties: Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb, Clayton, Coweta, Douglas, Fayette, and Henry.