Atlanta Map
Atlanta has no harbor, no navigable river and no pass to guard. It exists because the railroads chose the spot in 1837, and it held about 520,000 residents in 2024.
Where is Atlanta?
Atlanta sits in the northern third of Georgia, on the rolling Piedmont about 1,050 feet above sea level, where the last ridges of the southern Appalachians run out. It is about 245 miles southwest of Charlotte, roughly 250 miles southeast of Nashville, and some 345 miles northwest of Jacksonville — positioned between the mountains and the coastal plain rather than on either.
Atlanta at a glance
| State | Georgia |
| Counties | DeKalb, and Fulton counties |
| Population | 520,070 (2024 Census estimate) |
| Rank among US cities | No. 36 of the 100 largest |
| Time zone | Eastern Time |
| Region | South (South Atlantic division) |
Atlanta sits at No. 36 in the 2024 estimates, 15,728 people behind Sacramento and 2,919 ahead of Mesa. No second Georgia city reaches the hundred. Against Georgia's 11.18 million residents, though, that is only about 4.7%. It reaches into two counties, of which Fulton County is much the largest: the city holds about 48% of that county's 1,090,354 people.
Atlanta in Georgia
The city is the seat of Fulton County and reaches east into DeKalb County, two of Georgia's 159 counties — only Texas has more, and the Georgia county map shows how small most of them are. Metropolitan Atlanta now covers 20-odd of those counties and holds more than half the state's population, while Savannah, Augusta and Columbus anchor the rest. The Georgia state page covers the whole state and the capitals map puts the seat of government here.
On the Eastern Continental Divide
The ridge the original railhead was surveyed along is part of the Eastern Continental Divide: rain falling on one side of some Atlanta streets ends up in the Gulf of Mexico, and on the other side in the Atlantic. That is also why the city has no real river through it — the Chattahoochee only clips its northwestern edge, and the metro's water supply is correspondingly tight for a place this size. The Blue Ridge front of the Appalachians begins about 60 miles north, and the Appalachian Trail's southern end at Springer Mountain is a morning's drive away.
Cities near Atlanta
Regional neighbors: Charlotte, Nashville, Jacksonville, Raleigh and Memphis. The South Atlantic division page groups Georgia with the coastal states.