Athens, GA

Athens is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia. Downtown Athens lies about 70 miles (110 km) northeast of downtown Atlanta.^[6] The University of Georgia, the state’s flagship public university and an R1 research institution, is in Athens and contributed to its initial growth. In 1991, after a vote the preceding year, the original City of Athens abandoned its charter to form a unified government with Clarke County, referred to jointly as Athens–Clarke County, where it is the county seat.^[7]

As of 2021, the Athens-Clarke County’s official website’s population of the consolidated city-county (all of Clarke County except Winterville and a portion of Bogart) was 128,711.^[8] Athens is the sixth-most populous city in Georgia, and the principal city of the Athens metropolitan area,^[9] which had a 2020 population of 215,415, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.^[4] Metropolitan Athens is a component of the larger Atlanta–Athens–Clarke County–Sandy Springs Combined Statistical Area.^[10]

The city is a college town with a vibrant music scene centered in downtown Athens, next to the University of Georgia’s North Campus.^[11] Major music acts associated with Athens include numerous alternative rock bands such as R.E.M., the B-52’s, Widespread Panic, Drive-By Truckers, of Montreal, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Harvey Milk. The city is also known as a recording site for such groups as the Atlanta-based Indigo Girls. The 2020 book Cool Town: How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music and Changed American Culture describes Athens as the model of the indie culture of the 1980s.^[12] Athens has been named one of the best college towns in the US by Travel + Leisure,^[13] and one of the nation’s most charming small towns by HGTV.^[14]