Georgia By The Numbers

Find out which city was ranked Georgia’s best suburb

Based on a ranking consisting of 11 measurements, including income levels, crime rates and commute times, Milton is the most desirable Georgia suburb in which to live, according to a 24/7 Wall St. analysis published in January. Milton, which is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area, has a homeownership rate of 73.3% and an average commute time of 28.7 minutes. Its median household income came in at $125,096. The analysis indicated that interest in suburban living has risen during the coronavirus pandemic, since suburban properties tend to provide residents who are spending more time at home with more living space. Many…

How much student loan debt are Georgia graduates starting out with?

(The Center Square) – Last year’s Georgia college graduates on average racked up $28,081 in student loan debt, the 29th-highest average among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to a new report from the Institute for College Access & Success. In Georgia, the share of graduates with debt during the 2018-19 academic year stood at 56%, the institute reported, while the total cost of attending college in the state averaged $28,641. Nationwide, 62% of college seniors who graduated from both private and public universities last year had student loan debt, the analysis found. On average, graduates at the…

This school was named the top high school in Georgia

(The Center Square) – The Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science & Technology, where the average SAT score is 1370, was ranked the best public high school in Georgia, according to a review of school data by the website 24/7 Wall St. The school has an enrollment of 1,098 students and its average graduation rate stood at 95%, the analysis said. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed information from the data clearinghouse Niche, including teacher absenteeism, test scores and parent surveys, to carry out the study. Only about one-third of public school students entering high schools around the nation are ranked proficient in math,…

Georgia ranks third highest in residents without health insurance

Georgia residents without health insurance represent 13.41% of the state’s population, the third-highest percentage among the 50 states, according to a new study by the financial services website WalletHub. Between the years 2010 and 2019, the uninsured rate in Georgia declined 6.29%, the analysis said. Among the state’s children, the uninsured rate stood at 7.41%, while among adults the rate was 15.48% as of 2019. The passage of Obamacare caused the national uninsured rate for adults to decline to a record low, according to WalletHub. As of last year, the national rate stood at 9.2%, up slightly from the 8.9 percent…

This county pays the highest property taxes in Georgia

Fulton County residents on average paid $2,901 annually in property taxes, the highest such tax levies among all regions of Georgia, according to a new Tax Foundation analysis. The Tax Foundation study was based on median property taxes paid within counties in 2018, based on five-year estimates. The lowest such taxes were found in locations such as the Aleutians East Borough and the Kusilvak Census Area in Alaska, as well as some parishes in Louisiana and Alabama’s Choctaw County, where property owners pay about $200 annually. Counties in New York and New Jersey, meanwhile, were home to people who paid the…

This is Georgia’s favorite Halloween Candy

The fine folks at CandyStore.com have compiled their annual list of favorite Halloween Candy by state, and Georgia's top pick is controversial. In 2020, Georgians are buying up as many Swedish Fish as they can find. That's right, the Swedish Fish is the most popular Halloween candy in Georgia this year. The second and third ranked candies in Georgia are a little more traditional -- Sweet Tarts came in at number two and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups at number three. The map of top candies is below. Source: CandyStore.com. Candy lovers who are unhappy with Georgia's top pick can take…

This community has the worst quality of life in Georgia, study finds

(The Center Square) – Fair Oaks was ranked the worst place to live among all the cities in Georgia, according to a 24/7 Wall St. analysis examining communities where households have the most difficulties pursuing happiness and fulfillment. With a population of 9,173, Fair Oaks recorded a median home value of $100,900. The community’s poverty rate was pegged at 32.6%, and its five-year annual jobless rate came in at 8.1%, the analysis found. Fair Oaks is a census-designated community in Cobb County. 24/7 Wall St. used data from the FBI, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Census Bureau to…

Do you steal Halloween candy from your kids? You’re not alone

A survey of 1,637 adults found that not only are the majority of Americans still planning to celebrate Halloween despite the pandemic, an overwhelming majority also admitted they've been known to steal a little of their children's Halloween candy for themselves. While 2020 has been a scary year, October’s spooky season is still in fulleffect. Qccording to TopCashback.com https://www.topcashback.com/, 64% of Americans still plan on celebrating Halloween this year with 62% percent celebrating from home. Here are the results of the survey: Trick-or-Treat... Steal My Treats? Do you steal candy from your kid’s Halloween haul? Yes (82%)No (18%) On average how…

The best employer in Georgia may surprise you

(The Center Square) – A new survey of employees who work for large employers ranks Houston County Schools the best organization to work for in Georgia, according to an analysis by the Forbes website. The second annual Forbes list of top employers, which is based on a survey of 80,000 workers nationwide, consists of 51 separate rankings, one for each of the 50 states and Washington, D.C. Only employers with at least 500 workers on their payrolls were included in the survey. Houston County Schools, which has about 3,000 employees, is headquartered in Perry, Forbes reports.https://ad4c1b406dbb13745b6d84e46c717b73.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html The surveys were carried out…

Georgia’s least expensive place to live revealed

(The Center Square) – Residents of Marion County need to make $2,674 every month to maintain a modest standard of living, making it the least expensive place in Georgia to live, according to an analysis from 24/7 Wall St. The Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator was used to determine the local cost of living, which includes housing, food, health care, transportation and other necessities. In many of the locations examined in the study, which identified the region in each state where the cost of living is lowest, housing costs can account for less than 15 percent of total living expenses. The…

The price of an open records request in Georgia may surprise you

(The Center Square) – Members of the public looking for access to public records in Georgia might be surprised by the hefty price it could cost. Georgia law says, "An agency may impose a reasonable charge for the search, redaction, and production or copying cost of records responsive to an open records request." The cost must be calculated based on the "hourly salary of the lowest-paid employee qualified to conduct the research of an open records request," the law reads. The first 15 minutes of the employee's time is free. Margaret Kwoka, a law professor at the University of Denver,…

This county has the highest cost of living in Georgia

(The Center Square) – Residents of Forsyth County need to make $3,993 every month to maintain a modest standard of living, making it the most expensive place in Georgia to live, according to an analysis from 24/7 Wall St. The Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator was used to determine the local cost of living, which includes housing, food, health care, transportation and other necessities. In many of the locations identified, housing costs can account for more than 30 percent of these expenses. The monthly housing cost in Forsyth County was $1,085. And the median household income in the region stood…

Here’s how much you need to make to be in the top 1% of earners in Georgia

Bring in at least $501,914 in yearly income, and you’ll be among the top 1 percent of earners in Georgia, according to a 24/7 Wall St. analysis of the ultra wealthy in every state. The $501,914 threshold was the 15th highest among the 50 states, according to the analysis. The average income for the top 1 percent in the state is $1,420,732, and the share of all income in the state earned by the top 1 percent is 19 percent, 24/7 Wall St. reported. 24/7 Wall St. examined data published by the Internal Revenue Service for the 2017 tax year to…

See which Georgia county has the longest commute

How dramatically (and permanently) the pandemic will shape worker commutes remains to be seen, but initial research shows a decreased use of public transit, a higher reliance on bicycles, scooters, and e-bikes, and decreased travel overall as more people work from home. That could spell good news for the 50% of commuters who characterize their trip to work as stressful. As Americans reevaluate their relationship with commuting, Coverage.com used data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, released in December 2019, to analyze which states have the roughest rides to work. States along with Washington D.C. were ranked according…

Here’s how much Georgians have spent on working from home

We used to the see the office as not just a place to work, socialize and gossip by the water cooler, but as an abundant supplier of things like paperclips, staplers, paper and, of course, a desk. Most Americans are not used to working from home, so it soon became apparent most of us would have to provide some of our own equipment to set up a home office. But how much has this cost us? ThisIsWhyImBroke.com, a website which offers unique gifts, surveyed 3,000 workers to find out. According to the survey, on average, since they started working from home, Georgians have…