Gordon County, GA

County Profile

59,100 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Gordon 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.

64out of 100
Area Score
Top 42% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 32% of 1,255 counties64
SchoolsTop 31% of 973 counties66
GrowthTop 31% of 1,226 counties60
Housing affordabilityTop 46% of 1,255 counties94
ClimateTop 38% of 1,254 counties71
Physical resilience938th of 1,255 counties40
Access1093rd of 1,255 counties55
Economic stabilityTop 45% of 1,255 counties65
The quick read

Unemployment is 3.3% and median household income $63,650, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

In the public schools here, 42% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 15.5 students for every teacher.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by drought, tornado and cold wave.

At a glance

Population
59,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$63,650
Bottom 46% nationally
Density
166/sq mi
356.5 sq mi of land
Median age
38.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Gordon County
Georgia
Metro area
Calhoun, GA
Nearest major airport
ATL
65 mi · Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta Intl
Median home value
$222,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.3% is lower than 86% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 1.1% over the past year, to 28,453 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,284$63,650Bottom 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,692$32,658Bottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate12.0%Bottom 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute27.2 minTop 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher18.8%Bottom 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment28,453Bottom 38%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.1%Bottom 49%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)1.1%Top 15%June 2026
Labor force29,412Bottom 37%June 2026
Labor force participation61.3%Top 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.1%Top 48%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.3%Bottom 14%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/063.52.4
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.3% 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
202120222023202464k51k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $63,650 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.

42% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 37% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.5 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
15
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.5
across all schools here
Math proficiency
42.5%
Top 20% in Georgia
Reading proficiency
36.9%
Top 37% in Georgia
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Calhoun High SchoolCalhoun City1,28217.6
Sonoraville High SchoolGordon County1,09416.1
Calhoun Elementary SchoolCalhoun City92216.849%35%
Calhoun Primary SchoolCalhoun City91317.2
Gordon Central High SchoolGordon County87516.2
Red Bud Middle SchoolGordon County78614.637%37%
Sonoraville ElementaryGordon County58414.257%42%
Ashworth Middle SchoolGordon County57814.137%37%
Calhoun Middle SchoolCalhoun City57315.947%50%
Red Bud Elementary SchoolGordon County54713.338%29%
Belwood Elementary SchoolGordon County53012.948%42%
Tolbert Elementary SchoolGordon County52813.942%32%

89.9% 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 $937 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.5 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
17.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$937
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$222,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.50Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate73.9%Bottom 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2923,562Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$100$937Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$8,389$222,900Top 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.7%Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate9.4%Bottom 27%2024 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 31% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, measured from 2022 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 5% since 2020, reaching 60,765 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward 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 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 6.9 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
405
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
6.9
Top 18% nationally
Year over year
+1%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202461k58k
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
2022202320242025632317
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−50%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 91°F and January a low of 32°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 50.7 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station ROME R B RUSSELL AP, 19.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation50.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low32°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high91°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing38°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

40 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are drought, tornado and cold wave.

DroughtHigh
EarthquakeHigh
TornadoElevated
Strong windElevated
Cold waveElevated
LightningModerate

Low or minimal exposure: landslide, inland flooding, hurricane, hail, wildfire, ice storm, winter weather, heat wave.

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.

Gordon County records 3.2 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 16.7 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 12.8 per 100,000 residents in Gordon County.

Homicide
3.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
16.7
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
12.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
25.1
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 Gordon 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 Gordon County rather than Gordon 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

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 65 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta IntlATL65 mi12,390 ft
Mc Ghee TysonTYS103 mi10,000 ft
Huntsville Intl-Carl T Jones FldHSV109 mi10,001 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
64
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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 Gordon County, GA