Barrow County, GA

County Profile

89,886 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Barrow County, GA.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

76out of 100
Area Score
Top 7% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 6% of 1,255 counties measured82
SchoolsTop 46% of 973 counties measured54
GrowthTop 2% of 1,226 counties measured83
Housing affordability758th of 1,255 counties measured89
ClimateTop 7% of 1,254 counties measured80
Physical resilienceTop 44% of 1,255 counties measured66
Access883rd of 1,255 counties measured70
Economic stabilityTop 12% of 1,255 counties measured88
The quick read

Barrow County ranks in the top 6% of published profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.0% and median household income of $80,653.

In the public schools here, 31% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 13.2 students for every teacher.

1,573 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 4% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

At a glance

Population
89,886
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$80,653
Top 17% nationally
Density
558/sq mi
161.1 sq mi of land
Median age
36.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Barrow County
Georgia
Metro area
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA
Nearest major airport
ATL
48 mi · Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta Intl
Median home value
$294,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.0% is lower than 94% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 1.3% over the past year, to 48,473 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$4,208$80,653Top 17%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$905$33,600Bottom 43%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate9.6%Bottom 21%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute36.4 minTop 5%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher21.2%Bottom 45%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment48,473Top 45%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)4.6%Top 11%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)1.3%Top 12%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force49,997Top 45%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation67.6%Top 9%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.1%Bottom 39%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate3.0%Bottom 6%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/063.32.2
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.0% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202481k68k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $80,653 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.

31% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 34% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
17
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
31.1%
Bottom 47% in Georgia
Reading proficiency
34.4%
Bottom 49% in Georgia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Apalachee High SchoolBarrow County1,94914.9
Winder-Barrow High SchoolBarrow County1,86915.0
Russell Middle SchoolBarrow County97315.027%37%
Haymon-Morris Middle SchoolBarrow County97314.732%37%
Barrow Arts and Sciences AcademyBarrow County96716.422%37%
Holsenbeck Elementary SchoolBarrow County81313.135%38%
Westside Middle SchoolBarrow County79313.722%32%
Yargo Elementary SchoolBarrow County78212.634%34%
Statham Elementary SchoolBarrow County77611.927%29%
Kennedy Elementary SchoolBarrow County76412.740%32%
Bear Creek Middle SchoolBarrow County75213.027%42%
Austin Road Elementary SchoolBarrow County70013.0

60.0% 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 →

Median rent of $1,318 takes 20% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.7 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
19.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,318
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$294,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.65Top 27%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate78.5%Top 27%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±8532,248Top 25%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$69$1,318Top 12%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$5,871$294,700Top 20%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.6%Top 24%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.5%Bottom 4%of 3,2222024 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
83/ 100
Top 2% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 3 consecutive years, 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 15% since 2020, reaching 96,294 in 2024.

Permit activity has risen for 3 consecutive years.

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

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 17.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
1,573
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
17.5
Top 1% nationally
Year over year
−4%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202496k84k
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
2020202120222023202420252k940
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+69%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 88°F and January a low of 34°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 52.4 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station GAINESVILLE GILMER AP, 20.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation52.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low34°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high88°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing36°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

66 / 100
Physical resilience

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

LightningElevated
Ice stormModerate
TornadoModerate
EarthquakeModerate
HailModerate

Low or minimal exposure: strong wind, inland flooding, heat wave, hurricane, cold wave, landslide, wildfire, winter weather.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Barrow County records 3.8 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 18.3 per 100,000 residents in Barrow County.

Homicide
3.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.8
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
18.3
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
11.9
per 100,000 residents

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

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Barrow 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 Barrow County rather than Barrow County 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.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 48 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta IntlATL48 mi12,390 ft
Donaldson FldGYH93 mi8,000 ft
Augusta Rgnl At Bush FldAGS109 mi8,001 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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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
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)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
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)
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.

Cities in Barrow County, GA