2018 Population estimate for Augusta-Aiken MSA (Atlanta, Columbus: 2015, military, moving)

[Airforceguy]

Last week the census released their 2018 estimates for counties, metro and micropolitan areas. Every county, with the exception of Burke, posted a population gain.

Augusta-Richmond: 201,554
Aiken: 169,401
Columbia:154,291
Edgefield: 27,052
Burke: 22,423
McDuffie: 21,531
Lincoln: 7,915

Total: 604,057
https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/...xhtml?src=bkmk

[All_4_augusta]

Does this still make us the second largest city in Georgia, or did Columbus come back for us?

[AUGnative]

Within 12 years Columbia County will surpass Richmond County in population.Maybe sooner. Only a matter of time.

[JayHey]

Originally Posted by All_4_augusta

Does this still make us the second largest city in Georgia, or did Columbus come back for us?

Nah, Augusta has been the larger city since around 2014 or 2015. Columbus has lost around 5,000 people since then, mostly due to Ft Benning and realignment moving a chunk of military families out of the area. It's one thing to note that the only reason Augusta hasn't been the 2nd largest city in the state since the day it consolidated with Richmond County is because of Hephzibah and Blythe, those two small cities of >5,000 gave the razor edge to Columbus for a number of years.

Originally Posted by AUGnative

Within 12 years Columbia County will surpass Richmond County in population.Maybe sooner. Only a matter of time.

Predicting a 25% growth in under 10 years or an armageddon-style population crash for Richmond County? Because either way that's quite the hot take.

[cst8670]

Originally Posted by AUGnative

Within 12 years Columbia County will surpass Richmond County in population.Maybe sooner. Only a matter of time.

I would not be willing to wager either way on that however I will point out that for Columbia county a major hurdle to such growth is that it lacks any roads like Bobby Jones to ease the flow of traffic in and around the county.

[Airforceguy]

Originally Posted by cst8670

I would not be willing to wager either way on that however I will point out that for Columbia county a major hurdle to such growth is that it lacks any roads like Bobby Jones to ease the flow of traffic in and around the county.

As far as Columbia County's road network goes, the county is working to address these issues. The county is planning on widening Hereford Farm Rd from Columbia Rd to Belair Rd. This along with the widening Lewiston/Horizon South Pkwy widening will create a 4-lane road from Grovetown to Evans. Also, the county is planning to add an interchange at I-20 and Louisville Rd and turning Louisville Rd into a 4-lane facility in the next TSPLOST package in 2020. These projects along with the planned widening projects for Hardy McManus, Columbia Rd, and Harlem-Grovetown Rd will help traffic congestion in Columbia County.

[cst8670]

Originally Posted by Airforceguy

As far as Columbia County's road network goes, the county is working to address these issues. The county is planning on widening Hereford Farm Rd from Columbia Rd to Belair Rd. This along with the widening Lewiston/Horizon South Pkwy widening will create a 4-lane road from Grovetown to Evans. Also, the county is planning to add an interchange at I-20 and Louisville Rd and turning Louisville Rd into a 4-lane facility in the next TSPLOST package in 2020. These projects along with the planned widening projects for Hardy McManus, Columbia Rd, and Harlem-Grovetown Rd will help traffic congestion in Columbia County.

I am aware of those projects but they are not really comparable to Bobby Jones itself which lacks any traffic lights.

[AUGnative]

Richmond County has consistently had less than a 1% pop gain in 5 year periods. Its anemic growth is pretty much all from births outnumbering deaths. Compare that with Columbia County which consistently has double digits growth year after year. The only thing that will stop the population growth in CC us some huge scale back to the Cyber Center and other operations at Fort Gordon. I don't see that happening.
As far as which city is second largest...that's really nothing but a pissing contest. There is really no benefit or bonus to having the claim of second largest city. Can anyone name the second largest city of Illinois? When Fort Benning has major deployments Columbus naturally loses population, but then regains it, Muscogee and Richmond County are pretty close in population. We are usually only talking about a couple thousand people and the real census that matters is the official one in 2020. Also, don't forget Chatham County is the largest county by population outside metro Atlanta. If Savannah and Chatham ever consolidated like Augusta and Columbus did, it would be the second largest city by well over 65,000 ppl

[All_4_augusta]

Originally Posted by AUGnative

Richmond County has consistently had less than a 1% pop gain in 5 year periods. Its anemic growth is pretty much all from births outnumbering deaths. Compare that with Columbia County which consistently has double digits growth year after year. The only thing that will stop the population growth in CC us some huge scale back to the Cyber Center and other operations at Fort Gordon. I don't see that happening.
As far as which city is second largest...that's really nothing but a pissing contest. There is really no benefit or bonus to having the claim of second largest city. Can anyone name the second largest city of Illinois? When Fort Benning has major deployments Columbus naturally loses population, but then regains it, Muscogee and Richmond County are pretty close in population. We are usually only talking about a couple thousand people and the real census that matters is the official one in 2020. Also, don't forget Chatham County is the largest county by population outside metro Atlanta. If Savannah and Chatham ever consolidated like Augusta and Columbus did, it would be the second largest city by well over 65,000 ppl

All relevant information, but knowing who's second isn't a bad thing lol! After all, the running joke around here is there's Atlanta, then there's the rest of Georgia lol. Technically, we're the number one city in Georgia if that's true lol! Remember, I'm just joking people.

[AUGnative]

Really no one cares other than the boosters of these respective cities. Business and industry really could care less. They look at
MSAs, CSAs, market areas, etc. This has been little more than a pissing contest between Augusta and Columbus for 23 years.