Name Fayette County’s fastest growing city.
It’s Tyrone, with a decade-long increase of more than 75 percent, up to its current counted population of 6,879.
And Fayetteville grew to be nearly half as large as Peachtree City, coming in at nearly 16,000 persons — an increase of 43 percent — compared to Peachtree City’s slightly more than 34,000.
The demographic change in Fayette is dramatic, compared to decennial censuses for the past 30 years, with big increases in the Hispanic and black population and an actual net decline in white residents.
The white population of Fayette County has fallen by 2,789 persons over the past decade — a decline of 3.7 percent — while the black and Hispanic populations have doubled and tripled respectively, according to figures from the 2010 U.S. Census released Friday by the Atlanta Regional Commission.
Fayette County has a 2010 counted population — not an estimate — of 106,567 persons. Neighboring Coweta has an official count of 127,317.
According to just-released reports, Fayette saw a jump of 16.8 percent over the 2000 population count, while Coweta exploded by 42.7 percent.
Fayette’s black population doubled in 10 years to its current level of 21,117, nearly 20 percent of the total county population. That’s an increase of 102.2 percent, according to the Census. The black population in 2000 was 10,446.
Fayette’s Hispanic numbers also have increased dramatically — from 2,582 at the beginning of the decade to the current count of 6,760, an increase of 161.8 percent.
Coweta has experienced a growth in all segments: an increase of 34.3 percent in the white population, 36.2 percent in the black numbers, and 203.6 percent in Hispanics, the ARC says.
What is striking is that Fayette and Coweta now have nearly identical numbers of black residents — 21,117 in Fayette and 21,744 in Coweta.
In raw numbers, Fayette has 6,760 Hispanics, while Coweta counted 8,493 Hispanics.
Fayette is not alone in its declining numbers of whites. Neighboring Clayton County saw a decline of 46,468 whites; Cobb lost 32,986; DeKalb dropped 13,352; Douglas was down 5,198; Gwinnett lost 41,985; and Rockdale declined 16,279, the ARC report said.
Picking up the most in numbers of incoming white residents were Cherokee (46,314), Coweta (23,643), Forsyth (49,962), and Paulding (33,444).
Fayette’s housing units increased 8,067 units (24.7 percent) over 2000 numbers. The total number of housing units in 2010 was 40,793, of which 93.6 percent were occupied. In fact, Fayette’s empty house rate of 6.4 percent was the best — meaning the lowest vacancy rate — in the 20-county Atlanta metro area, the ARC report showed.
The full Georgia 2010 Census report is available for viewing and download at http://www.atlantaregional.com/info-center/2010-census.
In city data, the 2010 Census shows Peachtree City has fewer people that most current estimates have shown. The actual count shows 34,364 persons living inside Peachtree City, an increase of 8.8 percent over its 2000 population.
Fayetteville, the county’s second-largest city, came in at 15,945, an increase of 43 percent over 2000.
Tyrone comes in at 6,879 persons, an increase of 75.7 percent over the 2000 count.
Brooks actually lost population, dropping from 553 in 2000 to 524 in 2010.
And the county’s smallest functioning municipality, Woolsey, also lost residents. The rural community of Ga. Highway 92 south of Fayetteville had 175 residents in 2000 but dropped to 158 a decade later, the ARC report showed.
