​Atlanta Ranked 2nd Best City For Black Professionals: Study

ATLANTA, GA — Atlanta has been known to some as the “Black Mecca.”

The nickname has been around since the days of Mayor Maynord H. Jackson and his efforts to create opportunities for African American-owned companies to do business with Atlanta city government, comparing the way Black people flock to the Georgia capital to how the Muslim faithful make their pilgrimage to Islam’s holy city in Saudi Arabia.

Now, the online rental finding site Apartment List has scored Atlanta No. 2 out of more than 80 cities and metropolitan areas on its yearly ranking of Best Cities for Black Professionals. Washington, D.C., edged out Atlanta for the top spot, and three Texas cities — San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas, respectively — followed.

The study found that Texas, with four cities on the list (including Austin), was the best state for Black professionals. It also found that Georgia ranked high among states for Black professionals, along with North Carolina, Maryland and the District of Columbia, because of historically Black colleges and universities where many remained to start their careers after graduation.

The presence of a close-knit collection of HBCUs was a distinguishing factor for Atlanta’s place near the top of this list.

“Atlanta is known for its Atlanta University Center, which is the consortium of four HBCUs: Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Morehouse School of Medicine, and Spelman College,” a statement from the Apartment List ranking said. “This density of HBCUs may explain why Atlanta is home to a large Black community (36 percent of all residents) with a high college graduation rate (28 percent) and a high employment rate (93 percent). The median income for these professionals is lower than in Washington, D.C., but more closely aligned with non-Black incomes in the area.”

While the methodology for the ranking compiled by Apartment List’s Employee Resource Group is fairly comprehensive, the criteria are based upon four areas of importance:

• Community & Representation – recognizes regions with a sizeable and growing Black community that has substantial representation in key professions
• Economic Opportunity – highlights robust job markets that offer Black professionals competitive salaries or wages
• Housing Opportunity – measures housing equity and affordability and compares Black homeownership to non-Black homeownership in the particular market
• Business Environment – assesses the percentage of Black-owned businesses and how proportional that rate is to the community’s overall Black population

Individual factors used to score each of the 82 cities considered in this study, including employment rate and median household income, as well as weights and data sources considered for the rankings can be found in the complete data.