Holly Springs, Georgia

Area Profile

18,627 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Holly Springs, in Cherokee County.

76out of 100
Area Score
Top 5% of 2,944 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 1% of 3,904 cities measured92
SchoolsTop 15% of 2,668 cities measured79
GrowthTop 32% of 2,973 cities measured60
Housing affordabilityTop 40% of 4,223 cities measured86
ClimateTop 24% of 4,223 cities measured77
Physical resilienceTop 49% of 4,182 cities measured59
Access3579th of 4,226 cities measured73
Economic stabilityTop 5% of 4,226 cities measured81
The quick read

Holly Springs ranks in the top 1% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.0% and median household income of $113,992.

Residential permitting has slowed: 85 units authorized over the past twelve months, 50% below the prior year.

Rent takes 19% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.9 times that income.

At a glance

Population
18,627
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$113,992
Top 12% nationally
Density
2,543/sq mi
7.3 sq mi of land
Median age
39.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Cherokee County
Georgia
Metro area
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA
Nearest major airport
ATL
37 mi · Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta Intl
Median home value
$448,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.0% is lower than 96% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 2.1% over the past year, to 152,642 employed residents.

46% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 86% of measured US cities.

Household income is higher than at least 88% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$5,016$113,992Top 12%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,129$46,483Top 21%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate3.9%Bottom 19%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute35.4 minTop 15%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher45.8%Top 14%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment152,642Top 33%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)3.7%Top 11%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)2.1%Top 5%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force157,364Top 33%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation72.3%Top 13%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$71,900Top 38%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$51,170Bottom 49%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.0%Bottom 45%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate3.0%Bottom 4%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024114k99k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $113,992 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons84,970$32,850
Fast Food and Counter Workers80,730$27,780
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand78,460$39,020
General and Operations Managers69,320$111,410
Customer Service Representatives59,990$42,710
Registered Nurses56,460$100,490

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Cherokee County, GA, which contains this city.

56% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 55% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.6 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
10
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
56.4%
Top 14% in Georgia
Reading proficiency
54.7%
Top 15% in Georgia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Creekview High SchoolCherokee County2,03916.3
Sequoyah High SchoolCherokee County2,02116.7
Dean Rusk Middle SchoolCherokee County1,54316.847%58%
Creekland Middle SchoolCherokee County1,50316.552%62%
Avery Elementary SchoolCherokee County1,10414.064%55%
Hickory Flat Elementary SchoolCherokee County89015.167%57%
Indian Knoll ElementaryCherokee County88114.457%52%
Holly Springs Elementary SchoolCherokee County83114.854%35%
Macedonia Elementary SchoolCherokee County73014.366%59%
Free Home Elementary SchoolCherokee County28011.751%41%

25.5% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Georgia’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Prices for everything a household buys run at about the national average, on the Bureau of Economic Analysis index. Housing drives most of that difference.

Median rent of $1,850 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.9 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Cost of living
100.5

Prices here run about 0% above the national average. The spread between places is driven mostly by housing — goods vary far less — and this excludes taxes.

Rent as a share of income
19.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,850
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$448,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Cost of living index100.5Bottom 44%of 3,6582023
Home price to income3.93Top 28%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate75.1%Bottom 48%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4657,312Top 8%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$335$1,850Top 11%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$18,490$448,400Top 15%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.5%Top 44%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.7%Bottom 27%of 32,0012024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
60/ 100
Top 32% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, measured from 2020 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has grown 21% since 2020, reaching 20,133 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward after moving the other way the year before.

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 7% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 4.6 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
85
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.6
Top 32% nationally
Year over year
−50%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
7.1%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202420k17k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
2020202220232024202537794
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−57%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 90°F and January a low of 31°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 48.1 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station CARTERSVILLE AP, 21.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation48.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low31°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing37°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

Physical risk

59 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, tornado and earthquake.

TornadoModerate
Inland floodingModerate
HailModerate
LightningModerate
LandslideModerate
EarthquakeModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, ice storm, strong wind, heat wave, wildfire, hurricane, winter weather.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

Violent crime
0
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year
Property crime
351
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year

Below these are deaths rather than offences, published for the county. The two measure different things and are not comparable with each other.

Holly Springs's police department reported 0 violent offences per 100,000 residents, lower than most places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 351.

Cherokee County records 2.7 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 10.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 7.3 per 100,000 residents in Cherokee County.

Homicide
2.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
7.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
14.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Offences are reported to the FBI by Holly Springs’s own police department, for the population it serves, and are shown only where it reported every month of the year — a partial year is withheld rather than scaled up. Reported crime counts what was reported to and recorded by police, which is not the same as what happened, and a place that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate. Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Cherokee County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Holly Springs rather than Holly Springs itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Taxes
Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 37 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta IntlATL37 mi12,390 ft
Mc Ghee TysonTYS117 mi10,000 ft
Donaldson FldGYH127 mi8,000 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
76
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Other cities in Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
AtlantaFulton County505,26871vs Holly Springs
South FultonFulton County110,47168vs Holly Springs
Sandy SpringsFulton County107,08778vs Holly Springs
RoswellFulton County92,62180vs Holly Springs
Johns CreekFulton County81,98876vs Holly Springs
MabletonCobb County77,678vs Holly Springs
AlpharettaFulton County66,85584vs Holly Springs
MariettaCobb County62,26372vs Holly Springs
StonecrestDeKalb County60,50160vs Holly Springs
BrookhavenDeKalb County57,85573vs Holly Springs
SmyrnaCobb County56,63374vs Holly Springs
DunwoodyDeKalb County51,75874vs Holly Springs

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
safetyFederal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer
Summarized offense counts by law enforcement agency
2025 calendar yearAnnually, with monthly revisions
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
HousingU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Regional price parities and county personal income
2023Annually, each December
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

ZIP codes in Holly Springs

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
3011553,687$113,08976