UrbanizeAtlNewsBot@yall.theatl.social

UrbanizeAtlNewsBot@yall.theatl.social

Study finds Sandy Springs, Roswell more diverse than ATL. Huh? Josh Green Thu, 03/06/2025 - 14:23 If countless corporate relocations and press releases are any indication, the City of Atlanta’s diversity has become the equivalent of chamber of commerce gold in modern times. Think of Microsoft’s Atlantic Yards and U.S. Soccer’s National Training Center—just two examples of high-profile, jobs-producing projects that cited ATL’s diversity as a top reason to take root here.

But when it comes to truly mixed demographics, Georgia’s capital city might not shine as brightly on a national scale as you’d expect.

WalletHub, a personal finance website that examines city trends, recently slotted the City of Atlanta lower than some of its smaller, more affluent satellite cities on the 2025 Most Diverse Cities in America ranking.

Analysts compared profiles of more than 500 of the largest U.S. cities across five major diversity categories—cultural, economic, religious, socioeconomic, and household—and 13 different metrics to come up with this year’s list. Data for the ranking were pulled from the most recent U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Religion Census.

Based on those gauges, Sandy Springs ranks as the most diverse city in Georgia, finishing No. 43 overall with a score of 70.21 on a 100-point scale.

Sandy Springs: the king (and queen) of Peach State diversity? Shutterstock

Not far behind is another north OTP suburb, Roswell, which landed at No. 49 with a score of 69.85.

Both of the OTP cities ranked in the top 10 of all cities when it comes to religious diversity, according to WalletHub. For midsize cities nationally, Sandy Springs finished strongest of any place in Georgia in any category at No. 13.

Considerably further down the list is the City of Atlanta (No. 74, scoring 69.24), with its strongest showings in the categories of religious diversity and socioeconomic diversity. (The latter makes sense for a city that’s infamous for income inequality relative to big-city peers.)

Among large cities (with 300,000 residents or more), Atlanta ranked No. 29, between Fresno and St. Paul, respectively. Arlington took the top slot in that category.

How the City of Atlanta stacked up across all metrics in WalletHub’s findings. WalletHub

The top three finishers of all cities on the diversity-o-meter were all Maryland towns close to Washington D.C.—Gaithersburg, Silver Spring, and Germantown, respectively—that scored high when it comes to language, race, and educational attainment.

Across Georgia, other cities to make the diversity cut were Johns Creek (No. 91), Columbus (No. 104), Athens (No. 183), Augusta (No. 195), Macon (No. 223), Savannah (No. 231), and Albany (No. 374), per WalletHub’s findings.

On a lighter note, WalletHub slotted Atlanta No. 4 on its Most Fun Cities in America list that published in December. Woo!

The top 20 across all 500 places on the Most Diverse Cities in the U.S. (2025) ranking. WalletHub

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