Are Henry County residents optimistic for the future? Do they believe life in our community will be better, worse or about the same in 3-4 years? The Atlanta Regional Commission, in collaboration with Kennesaw State University, published its annual Metro Atlanta Speaks survey on Friday, November 1, 2024.
Henry County Not So Optimistic for the Future
The Metro Atlanta Speaks survey is an annual survey asking Atlanta area residents their position on issues facing the region. This year, the survey polled a little over 4,000 respondents in the Atlanta area, and about 300 respondents in Henry County. The survey’s margin of error is 1.5% for the metro area, and 5.6% for Henry County.
One survey question gauges respondents’ optimism about the future. Henry County respondents are regularly less optimistic for the future, compared to the metro area as a whole. This year, 40% of Henry County respondents expressed a belief that life will be worse in metro Atlanta in 3-4 years. That’s compared to 33% region-wide. Henry County has shown less optimism than the region average every year since 2016. *The survey was not conducted in 2022.
On the positive side, 22.4% of Henry County respondents expressed life will be better in 3-4 years. This is up from 18.6% one year ago. Lastly, 32.3% indicated “about the same” this year. Region-wide, that response rate was 32.1%.
Among the 11 metro counties in the survey area, Henry County (40%) had the 3rd-highest negative response. Rockdale County (45%) and Forsyth County (41%) had a higher percentage select “the region will be worse.” Cherokee County (39%) was slightly behind Henry.
Historically, Henry County had the highest percent select “the region will be worse” in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Would You Move Out of Metro Atlanta?
A second quality of life question asks survey respondents about moving. Specifically, the question is “If you could, would you move to a different neighborhood in the Metro Atlanta area, stay where you are now, or move away from metro Atlanta?” Henry County respondents express a high preference to leave the metro area.
This year, 38% of Henry County respondents said they would move away from Atlanta. This was six percentage points more than the next two counties, Clayton and Forsyth. The region average was 24%. The other options, move to a different neighborhood and stay where one is now, received 12% and 48% from Henry County respectively.
Henry County has had the most respondents indicate they would move away from metro Atlanta in four out of the five years this particular question has been asked. The Metro Atlanta Speaks survey asked the question in 2016-18, then reintroduced it in 2023.
To learn more about the Metro Atlanta Speaks survey, visit the ARC website here.
Featured image shows the McDonough Square and Henry County Courthouse. Lennar photo.
