Hall County grew 29 percent since 2000, part of a massive swell across North Georgia, according to numbers released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Of the 20 fastest-growing counties in the state, seven are in North Georgia and only five are in metro Atlanta. Each boasted a more than 35 percent population increase.
Hall County's population now sits at 179,684, an addition of 40,377 people since 2000. That makes the county the 11th largest in the state, the same rank it held in 2000.
Kit Dunlap, president of the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce, said she had expected the numbers to be slightly higher, but that the figures show a steady growth within the county.
"I'm not really surprised," she said. "We've been pretty far up in the rankings of growth percentages. And with the economy and some of the Latino population that has left in the last few years, no I'm not surprised."
Gainesville showed substantial gain — 23.4 percent.
But Flowery Branch surged 116 percent, to 5,700 from 2,600, and was the 20th fastest-growing city in the state.
Flowery Branch officials said they aren't especially surprised about the high rate of growth in the South Hall city, especially with the annexation and development this past decade of Sterling on the Lake, one of the county's biggest subdivisions.
Mayor Mike Miller said he expects the growth to continue and that the town has to be prepared for it.
"We've got key sites off I-985 for commercial development," he said. "We've got residential development (taking place) at Sterling on the Lake."
Braselton, which is partially in Hall County, grew nearly 300 percent since 2000, making it the third fastest-growing incorporated area in the state.
Frank Norton of The Norton Agency said the Flowery Branch numbers are in line with their land growth, as the city has more than doubled in size in the last decade.
"We'll see them double again most likely in the next 10 years," he said. "They have room to grow. Oakwood has room to grow and has ambition to grow. City of Gainesville is more constrained by the lake and constrained by other geographic patterns for growth and may not have the geographic growth but the population will get more dense."
Forsyth County was the fastest-growing county in the state, showing a 78.4 percent increase and inching it within a few thousand people of overtaking Hall as the largest North Georgia county outside of metro Atlanta.
"I had predicted that in five years Forsyth County might be ahead of us," Norton said. "It might be tomorrow,"
Other North Georgia counties showing large gains were Cherokee at 51 percent, Barrow at 50.3 percent, Jackson at 45.4 percent, Lumpkin at 42.8 percent, Dawson at 39.5 percent and White at 36 percent.
Their growth is especially noteworthy when looking at the massive population losses sustained in South Georgia counties, for example a 24.3 percent drop in Chattahoochee County, a 15.3 percent drop in Baker County and a 15.1 percent drop in Terrell County.
"Our growth in the northern part of the state is a reflection of our more diverse economy, which has been more able to handle the downs of the recession," said Phillippa Lewis Moss, director of the Gainesville Community Service Center and co-chairwoman of the county's Complete Count Committee, which worked to advertise the census.
"And I think it is quite possible that the southern counties were just less resilient; people have had to move because the opportunities have been fewer."
While the recession has slowed growth, it's just a temporary stall in the expansion that pushed Hall's population to increase 29 percent in the last decade, Norton said.
And the county is still in the middle of that spurt, said Doug Bachtel, professor in the University of Georgia College of Family and Consumer Sciences.
"Growth begets growth," he said. "And once it starts, it usually doesn't necessarily stop."
Statewide, Georgia added more than 1.5 million people, a growth of 18.3 percent.
Staff writer Jeff Gill contributed to this story.