Demographics of Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a South Atlantic U.S. state with a population of 10,711,908 according to the 2020 United States census, or just over 3% of the U.S. population. The majority of the state's population is concentrated within Metro Atlanta, although other highly populated regions include: West Central and East Central Georgia; West, Central, and East Georgia; and Coastal Georgia; and their Athens, Columbus, Macon and Warner Robins, Augusta, Savannah, Hinesville, and Brunswick metropolitan statistical areas.

Race and ethnicity
Since the beginning of the 21st century, Georgia's population has experienced diversification with the decline of its non-Hispanic white population. This diversification has reflected nationwide trends of the United States' population identifying with other races and ethnicities at the 2020 census. In 2020, the state's Black and African American population increased by 13%, remaining the second-largest racial and ethnic group; the state's Asian population grew by 53% and its Hispanic and Latino American population increased by 32%. In 2020, the state's foreign born population was 10.4%.

Current
According to the 2020 U.S. census, the racial and ethnic makeup of the population was 50.1% non-Hispanic white, 32.6% African American, 4.4% Asian American, 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, and 10.5% Hispanic and Latino American of any race. In 2010, with a population of 9,687,653, non-Hispanic whites formed 55.9% of the state population and African Americans were 30.5% of the state. According to data from 2010, the largest ancestry groups were: 10.8% American (mostly British descent), 9.5% Irish, 8.9% English, 8.8% Hispanics and Latinos and 8.2% German. According to the American Community Survey in 2022, the largest ancestral groups were 10.4% English, 6.9% Irish, 6.3% German, 2.2% sub-Saharan African, 2.1% Italian, 1.7% Scottish, 1.1% French, 1% Polish, and 0.3% Norwegian.

In the 1980 census, 1,584,303 Georgians cited that they were of English ancestry out of a total state population of 3,994,817 making them 40% of the state, and the largest ethnic group at the time. Their ancestry primarily goes back to the original Thirteen Colonies and for this reason many of them today simply claim "American" ancestry, though they are of predominantly English ancestry.

In 2004, 7.7% of its population was reported as under 5 years of age, 26.4% under 18, and 9.6% were 65 or older. Also as of 2004, females made up approximately 50.6% of the population, and African Americans made up approximately 29.6% of the state's population.

White and European Americans
White and European Americans have historically composed the predominant racial and ethnic composition for the state. Primarily descending from British, Irish, English, and German ancestry, the state's White and European American population have shared a common, White Southern and Protestant culture with Americans of neighboring states.

Black and African Americans
Historically, about half of Georgia's population was composed of African Americans who, prior to the American Civil War, were almost exclusively enslaved. The Great Migration of blacks from the rural South to the industrial North from 1914–1970 reduced the African American population. Since the New Great Migration of African Americans into the South, Black and African Americans grew to becoming the second-largest race and ethnicity in the state. Within Atlanta and its metropolitan statistical area, the state's black population forms the largest residential composition; there are also large black populations in Southwest Georgia, forming part of the Black Belt in the American South.

Having a concentration of African-descended peoples in Southeast Georgia and the Lower Coastal Plain, the descendants of enslaved Africans led to the development of the Gullah-Geechee people and language. In the creolization of Lowcountry culture, their foodways became an integral part of all cooking in the Lowcountry.

Culturally, black Georgians have shared the dialects of Southern American English, African American Vernacular English, and African American English with the remainder of the Black Southerner population. Gullah-Geechee Georgians also speak the Gullah language. In terms of religious affiliation and observance, the black Georgian communities have identified with African American Protestantism or Black Catholicism. Since the late 18th century, most black Georgian Protestants have affiliated with the Baptist tradition through the National Baptist Convention, National Baptist Convention of America, Progressive National Baptist Convention, and National Primitive Baptist Convention.

Hispanic and Latino Americans
Georgia has had a growing Hispanic and Latino American population since the beginning of the 21st century, although there has been a historically minor Hispanic presence in present-day Southwest, Southeast and Coastal Georgia through the Spanish missions and initial settlement. During Spanish colonization of the Americas, following Hernando de Soto's expedition, explorers arrived at the territories of the Coosa chiefdom in Northwest Georgia, but none successfully established colonies.

As of 2022, most Hispanics and Latinos in Georgia are of Mexican ancestry. Among its Hispanic and Latino population, the majority have the common religious tradition of Catholicism, which has been increasing statewide. According to 2018 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the majority of Hispanics and Latinos in Georgia were of Mexican descent (58.1%) followed by those of Puerto Rican descent (10.1%), Guatemalan descent (6.3%), Salvadoran descent (4.8%), Cuban descent (3.4%), Colombian descent (3.1%), Honduran descent (2.5%), Dominican descent (2.2%), Venezuelan descent (1.4%), Peruvian descent (1.2%), Spanish descent (1.2%), and those of other Hispanic ethnicity or of mixed Hispanic ethnicity (5.7%).

Native American and Asian Americans
Native Americans were once the predominant ethnicity in the present-day U.S. state of Georgia, before European colonization. Since the decline of Georgia's Native American population due to colonialism and diseases from the Old World, alongside relocation, its constituency has remained small. Numbering 34,485 individuals, of which 70.5% belonged to federally recognized tribes as of 2018, the largest recognized tribe was the Cherokee (5,950 individuals) followed by Chippewa (727), Navajo (502), Sioux (347), and Alaska Natives (76).

The Asian American population in Georgia is diverse and growing, and as of 2018 with the largest group being that of Indian descent (32.6% of Asians) followed by those of Chinese (excluding Taiwan) descent (15.0%), Vietnamese descent (13.8%), Korean descent (12.2%), Filipino descent (6.0%), Pakistani descent (3.8%), Nepalese descent (2.4%), Japanese descent (2.1%), Burmese descent (1.9%), Hmong descent (1.5%), Bangladeshi descent (1.3%), Cambodian descent (1.1%), Thai descent (1.0%), and those of other Asian ethnicity or of mixed Asian ethnicity (5.3%).

Birth data
Note: Births in table don't add up, because Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving a higher overall number.


 * Since 2016, data for births of White Hispanic origin are not collected, but included in one Hispanic group; persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.

Languages
In 2010, 87.35% (7,666,663) of Georgia residents age 5 and older spoke English at home as a primary language, while 7.42% (651,583) spoke Spanish, 0.51% (44,702) Korean, 0.44% (38,244) Vietnamese, 0.42% (36,679) French, 0.38% (33,009) Chinese (which includes Mandarin,) and German was spoken as a main language by 0.29% (23,351) of the population over the age of five. In total, 12.65% (1,109,888) of Georgia's population age 5 and older spoke a mother language other than English.

LGBT community
Georgia's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community has had a long history. The city of Atlanta has one of the highest LGBT populations per capita. It ranks 3rd of all major cities, behind San Francisco and slightly behind Seattle, with 12.8% of the city's total population identifying themselves as gay, lesbian, or bisexual according to studies in 2009 and 2007. According to the 2000 United States census (revised in 2004), Atlanta had the twelfth highest proportion of single-person households nationwide among cities of 100,000 or more residents, which was at 38.5%.

Religion
As a state within the Bible Belt, Georgia has historically been a relatively religious state. Pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial Georgians have practiced numerous Native American religions alongside Christianity through the formation of missions. Other faiths including Hoodoo or Lowcountry Voodoo were also introduced in colonial and post-colonial Georgia through the Gullah-Geechee peoples. In colonial and post-colonial Georgia, Christianity became the state's largest religion, representing 79% of the adult population in 2014, and 78% in 2020, according to two separate studies by the Pew Research Center and Public Religion Research Institute. '

Per the Pew Research Center in 2014, non-Christian religions accounted for 3% of the population, with Judaism and Islam tied at 1% of the religiously-affiliated population. Eastern religions including Buddhism and Hinduism were both less than 1% each of the population, and other world religions accounted for less than 1% of the state's religious constituents. Other faiths such as New Age and Native American religions were 2% of the population, and approximately 18% of the state were unaffiliated, including agnostics and atheists. Among the state in 2014, 13% practiced nothing in particular.