Metro Atlanta, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Alpharetta, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the eighth-largest in the United States. Its economic, cultural and demographic center is Atlanta, and its total population was 6,144,050 according to the 2021 estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau. The metro area forms the core of a broader trading area, the Atlanta–Athens-Clarke–Sandy Springs Combined Statistical Area. The Combined Statistical Area spans up to 39 counties in north Georgia, and one county in Alabama, Chambers. The Combined Statistical Area recorded in the 2020 census a population of 6,930,423. Atlanta is the second-largest metropolitan are