Atkinson County area

Population and density of Atkinson County

The Census Bureau estimates that 8,454 people lived in Atkinson County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,619 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #138 of 159 in Georgia. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 8,283, the population has grown by 171 (+2.1%), compared with +5.5% for Georgia as a whole.

With 342.7 square miles of land, that is 25 people per square mile (9.5 per km²), placing Atkinson County #2,151 nationally for density and #135 in Georgia. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Georgia median is 69. Put another way, there are about 26 acres of land per resident.

U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates. Estimates are revised each year and are not decennial census counts. Density divides the whole population by the whole county’s land area, so it describes an average, not how settlement is distributed within the county. Population sources and methods.

Cities and towns in Atkinson County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Atkinson County. Together they are home to 3,164 people (37.4%); the other 5,290 (62.6%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Pearson city, with 1,908 residents in the county. By land, Willacoochee city is the largest at 3.82 mi². Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Pearson city grew fastest since then (+5.3%).

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each place inside Atkinson County. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer, for the whole place even where it extends into other counties. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Atkinson County is an outlying county of the Douglas, GA Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2 county equivalents have 52,861 residents on 935 square miles of land; Atkinson County accounts for 36.7% of the land and 16% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #201 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #206 by population.

ZIP codes

5 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Atkinson County; 3 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

3155231624316353164231650

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Lighter codes have less than half of their land in this county. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Atkinson County

Atkinson County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Ware County (899.4 mi²) and the smallest is Lanier County (196.5 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Atkinson County forms a block of 3,299.3 mi² of land, of which it holds 10.4%.

How big is Atkinson County compared with U.S. states?

Atkinson County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 3 times as much. Georgia’s county land could hold about 168 areas the size of Atkinson County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 18.5 miles (29.8 km) on each side. Real county shapes are rarely square, so this is a scale reference rather than a width or driving distance.

State figures are the sums of each state’s county-equivalent land measurements in the same Census release, so states and counties are compared on the same basis. Published state totals can differ slightly because of rounding. Compare all states · Counties bigger than entire states.

What stands out about Atkinson County?

Atkinson County has more land than 520 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

A median is the middle county-equivalent measurement, not the average of the largest and smallest. All three bars use the same linear scale. Very small areas may appear as a thin sliver; the labels retain their values.

Does including water change its rank?

Using land plus water places Atkinson County at #2,748 nationally by total area, 46 places farther from the top than its land rank. Other county equivalents gain more area when their water measurements are included.

Its water share is 0.5%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.6 percentage points lower. This describes the statistical geography’s land/water mix, not flood exposure or developable land.

Closest positions in the national land ranking

These entries sit immediately beside Atkinson County in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Calculated from the same Census release as the area table. Total-area order uses original ALAND + AWATER; water shares and chart labels use published square miles. Calculation details.