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Athens is a city in the U.S. state of Georgia, situated on the Oconee River some 65 miles northeast of Atlanta, in the Piedmont region near the Blue Ridge foothills. A college town and home to the University of Georgia, Athens is known for its vibrant nightlife and eclectic culture. It is a historical center for alternative rock and new wave music and was home to the first and most famous college music scene in the country.

In 1996 Athens was the largest Olympic venue outside of the host city for the Centennial Olympic Games. Each spring since 1980 Athens has hosted the annual Twilight Series, including the country's most prestigious criterium race, Twilight Criterium.

Since 1991, the local government has been a consolidated city-county comprising the former city of Athens proper (the county seat) and Clarke County. In 2013, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated Athens–Clarke County had a population of 119,880 and a metropolitan population of 197,905.

Athens is on the Atlanta-Charlotte high-speed rail corridor.

It is one of the most politically liberal and solidly Democratic cities in Georgia.

It also has the highest cost of living index in the state and is ranked second in most income inequality in Georgia and eighth in the United States. Its poverty rate is the fourth highest in Georgia.

It has the highest proportion of adults with advanced degrees among the state's most populous cities.

The Oconee National Forest is some 10 miles to the south.

Since 2010 migration has accounted for more than one-third of the area's population growth: of an estimated 6,475 new residents, 2,246 are migrants, of whom 1,960—or 87 percent—are immigrants from other countries. This trend is consistent with. Altogether, over 30 percent of the area's population growth is attributed to immigrants from other countries.

Greater Athens has grown faster than the national average.