Georgia county map

Why Georgia has so many counties

Georgia’s 159 counties average only 374 square miles, less than half the national figure. The number grew steadily from the eight original counties of 1777 through the land lotteries that distributed Creek and Cherokee lands in the 1800s, when each new cession was immediately cut into small counties. Politics kept the count rising: under the county unit system used in state primaries until 1962, every county had at least one unit vote, so creating a county created votes. The constitution of 1945 capped the total at 159, and Milton and Campbell counties had already been merged into Fulton in 1932, so the figure has not changed since.

Seven counties — Athens-Clarke, Augusta-Richmond, Columbus-Muscogee, Macon-Bibb, Cusseta-Chattahoochee, Georgetown-Quitman and Preston-Webster — have consolidated city–county governments. The county and city keep their separate names in Census tables and in the list below.

Names honour presidents, governors, generals and legislators. Only a few are Native American (Chattahoochee, Coweta, Muscogee, Oconee, Catoosa); a handful are places (Columbia, Effingham, Glynn, Liberty, Union). Ben Hill, Jeff Davis, Ben Hill and Peach are unusual full-name and crop names; Peach County (1924) was the last to be created.

All 159 counties of Georgia

Five county facts

• Largest by area: Ware County around Waycross, about 900 square miles, much of it the Okefenokee Swamp. Burke and Clinch are next.
• Smallest by area: Clarke County (Athens), about 120 square miles, the smallest county in Georgia; Rockdale and Chattahoochee are also under 200 square miles.
• Most populous: Fulton County, about 1,067,000 people in 2020, containing most of Atlanta. Gwinnett, Cobb and DeKalb each top 750,000; the four metro Atlanta counties together hold a third of the state.
• Least populous: Taliaferro County, seat Crawfordville, east of Atlanta, with about 1,600 people — one of the least populous counties east of the Mississippi.
• Oldest and newest: Burke, Camden, Chatham, Effingham, Glynn, Liberty, Richmond and Wilkes were created in 1777 from the colonial parishes. Peach County (1924) is the newest. Georgia has no independent cities, but seven consolidated city–county governments.

Reading the map

Press Streets and zoom in on the highlighted state to see the county lines — there are so many that it is easiest to work region by region. The mountain counties along the Tennessee and North Carolina lines (Dade, Walker, Fannin, Union, Towns, Rabun) are small and rugged. A band of larger counties runs across the south from Decatur and Seminole on the Florida line to Camden and Glynn on the coast. The Savannah River forms the entire eastern border with South Carolina, so Rabun, Habersham, Stephens, Hart, Elbert, Lincoln, Columbia, Richmond, Burke, Screven, Effingham and Chatham are river counties. Georgia is wholly on Eastern Time.

Related maps

• Georgia map — cities, borders and geography.
• Blank Georgia map and printable Georgia map.
• Atlanta, capital and largest city, in Fulton County.
• Neighbouring county maps: Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama.
• South Atlantic states · the Southeast · the South · Eastern Time Zone.
• Geography: Appalachian Mountains, US coastlines, major rivers.
• All US county maps.