By U.S. Census Bureau standards, the population of the Atlanta region spreads across a metropolitan area of 8,376 square miles (21,694 km2),[7] comparable to the size of Israel.

Because Georgia contains more counties than any other state except Texas (explained in part by the now-defunct county-unit system of weighing votes in primary elections),[8] area residents live under a heavily decentralized collection of governments.

[7] Eleven cities – Johns Creek (2006), Milton (2006), Chattahoochee Hills (2007), Dunwoody (2008), Peachtree Corners (2012), Brookhaven (2012), Tucker (2016), Stonecrest (2016), South Fulton (2017), Mableton (2022) and Mulberry (2024) – have incorporated since then, following the lead of Sandy Springs in 2005.

The region is one of the metropolises of the Southeastern United States, and is part of the emerging megalopolis known as Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion along the I-85 Corridor.

The eleven ARC counties, bolded, and four more (Bartow, Coweta, Hall, Paulding), with an asterisk (*), form part of the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District, created in 2001.

[14] Metro Atlanta includes the following incorporated and unincorporated suburbs (both inside and outside Atlanta), exurbs, and surrounding cities, sorted by population according to 2020 census data (or later data if the city was incorporated after 2020 and census data is unavailable):[15] Principal Cities Places with 100,000 to 399,999 inhabitants Places with 75,000 to 99,999 inhabitants Places with 50,000 to 74,999 inhabitants Places with 25,000 to 49,999 inhabitants Places with 24,999 or fewer inhabitants Northern Suburbs: Sandy Springs, Roswell, Johns Creek, Alpharetta, Dunwoody, Peachtree Corners, Milton, Woodstock, Canton, Duluth, Sugar Hill, Suwanee, Norcross, Buford, Mulberry, Holly Springs, Mountain Park, Cumming, Ball Ground, Berkeley Lake, Nelson, Waleska Eastern Suburbs: Stonecrest, Brookhaven, Tucker, Redan, Lawrenceville, Chamblee, Decatur, Candler-McAfee, Snellville, North Druid Hills, Conyers, North Decatur, Belvedere Park, Clarkston, Lilburn, Scottdale, Doraville, Panthersville, Gresham Park, Druid Hills, Dacula, Stone Mountain, Grayson, Avondale Estates, Lithonia, Lakeview Estates, Pine Lake Southern Suburbs: East Point, Peachtree City, McDonough, Stockbridge, Union City, Forest Park, Fayetteville, Fairburn, Riverdale, College Park, Lovejoy, Locust Grove, Hampton, Irondale, Tyrone, Morrow, Conley, Hapeville, Palmetto, Jonesboro, Bonanza, Heron Bay, Chattahoochee Hills, Lake City, Brooks, Woolsey Western Suburbs: Marietta, Smyrna, Mableton, Douglasville, Kennesaw, Acworth, Lithia Springs, Powder Springs, Vinings, Fair Oaks, Austell, Fairplay The area sprawls across the low foothills of the Appalachian Mountains to the north and the Piedmont to the south.

The fineness of it also means it is easily deposited into streams during heavy rains, creating silt problems where it is exposed due to construction.

The lowest recorded temperatures were −6 °F (−21 °C) and −8 °F (−22 °C) on January 20 and 21 of 1985, and −9 °F (−23 °C) on February 13, 1899, during severe cold snaps that went so far south they devastated the entire citrus industry in central Florida.

A blizzard (see: 1993 Storm of the Century) caught much of the Southeast off-guard in 1993, dumping 4.5 inches (11.4 cm) at the Atlanta airport on March 13, and much more than that in the suburbs to the north and west, as well as in the mountains.

The drought began to abate significantly after the 2009 Atlanta floods, when some areas got up to 20 inches (500 mm) of rain in a week, with half of that falling in just 24 hours near the end of the period.

[citation needed] The state legislature has refused to pass a requirement for low-flow toilets to be installed in homes that are sold, bowing to pressure from the real estate sales industry.

[citation needed] The state has now been ordered by a judge to reduce withdrawals from the Chattahoochee south of Lanier to 1970s levels within three years (2012), something that would create an immediate emergency water shortage if it were actually enforced.

Common garden plants include dogwood, azalea, hydrangea, flowering cherry, maples, pin oak, red-tip photinia, holly, juniper, white pine, magnolia, Bradford pear, forsythia, liriope (mondograss), and English ivy.

Native to the nearby mountains, maples are now one of the most common landscape trees for new homes and parking lots, giving their color in the fall instead of spring.

Common lawn weeds are mock strawberry, violet, wild onion, and of course the ubiquitous dandelion, crabgrass, and plantain.

Some vines exceed 50 years of age and cover dozens of acres of forest, creating a dense, purple explosion each spring.

The most common birds are the brown thrasher (the GA state bird), American crow, European (or common) starling, American robin, mourning dove, house sparrow, northern cardinal, house finch, Carolina chickadee, tufted titmouse, bluejay, white-breasted nuthatch, eastern bluebird, mockingbird, brown-headed nuthatch, and Carolina wren.

[19] Due to its availability of jobs, Atlanta has been a destination for young college-educated blacks in the Reverse Great Migration of African Americans from the North since the turn of the 21st century, with many settling quickly into suburban locations.

Major petroleum and natural gas pipelines cross the area, running from the Gulf coast, Texas, and Louisiana to the population centers of the Northeastern U.S.

During drought or other emergency, cities and counties can enact outdoor water-use restrictions, however some cross-jurisdiction water systems have also acted to put bans in place.

Alongside other factors such as race and class, as well as a lack of planning and perceived lack of need, problems associated with the inner city of Atlanta (crime, poverty, and poor public school performance) influenced Cobb, Gwinnett, and Clayton county voters to refuse to allow construction of MARTA into their respective counties during the 1970s.

[citation needed] In 2020 and 2022, Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock successfully won full terms to represent the state in the U.S. Senate, mainly due to winning by large margins in Metro Atlanta.

[45] Atlanta has always been a rail town, and the city once had an extensive streetcar system, which also provided interurban service as far out as Marietta, 15 miles (24 km) to the northwest.

Xpress GA, a suburban commuter bus service operated by the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority or GRTA, has over 32 routes running from the suburbs and exurbs to downtown Atlanta in 12 metropolitan counties.

The first commuter rail line would run south of the city, eventually extended to Lovejoy and possibly Hampton near Atlanta Motor Speedway.

As planned, all commuter trains would arrive at the Atlanta Multimodal Passenger Terminal (MMPT), the long-delayed facility just across Peachtree Street from the Five Points MARTA station, where all of its lines meet.

Another proposed plan that has received very strong grassroots support in recent years is the BeltLine, a greenbelt and transit system that takes advantage of existing and unused rail tracks to set up a 22-mile (35 km) light rail or streetcar circuit around the core of Atlanta, as well as establishing more green space and footpaths for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Owing to the area's long history of settlement and uneven terrain, most arterial roads are not straight but meander instead, which can be confusing as much as the famed proliferation of Atlanta streets with "Peachtree" in the name.

In Fulton, "Roswell Road" refers to Georgia 9 through northern Atlanta and across Sandy Springs, in addition to the above-mentioned use in Cobb, for example.

Postal Service ignores these actual and logical boundaries however, overlapping ZIP codes and their associated place names across counties.