Chatham County, Georgia

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Chatham County, Georgia
Chatham County Administrative and Legislative Center in Savannah
Seal of Chatham County, Georgia Seal
Location in the state of Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia's location in the U.S.
Founded	February 5, 1777
Named for	William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham
Seat	Savannah
Largest city	Savannah
Area  - Total  - Land  - Water	632 sq mi (1,637 km²) 426 sq mi (1,103 km²) 206 sq mi (534 km²), 32.6%
Population  - (2020)  - Density	295,291 622/sq mi (240/km²)
Congressional district	1st
Time zone	Eastern: UTC-5/-4
Website	www.chathamcounty.org

Chatham County is a county in the U.S. state of Georgia, and is located on the state's Atlantic coast. The county seat and largest city is Savannah. One of the original counties of Georgia, Chatham County was created February 5, 1777, and is named after William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham.

The population as of the 2020 U.S. Census was 295,291 residents, making Chatham the most populous Georgia county outside the Atlanta metropolitan area. Chatham is the core county of the Savannah metropolitan area.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 632 square miles (1,640 km²), of which 426 square miles (1,100 km²) is land and 206 square miles (530 km²) (32.6%) is water.

Chatham County is the northernmost of Georgia's coastal counties on the Atlantic Ocean. It is bounded on the northeast by the Savannah River, and in the southwest bounded by the Ogeechee River.

The bulk of Chatham County, an area with a northern border in a line from Bloomingdale to Tybee Island, is located in the Ogeechee Coastal sub-basin of the Ogeechee River basin. The portion of the county north of that line is located in the Lower Savannah River sub-basin of the Savannah River basin, while the very southern fringes of the Chatham County are located in the Lower Ogeechee River sub-basin of the Ogeechee River basin.

Major highways

• Interstate 16
• Interstate 95
• Interstate 516
• U.S. Route 17
• U.S. Route 80
• State Route 17
• State Route 21
• State Route 21 Spur
• State Route 25
• State Route 26
• State Route 26 Connector
• State Route 30
• State Route 204
• State Route 204 Spur
• State Route 307
• State Route 404 (unsigned designation for I-16)
• State Route 404 Spur
• State Route 405 (unsigned designation for I-95)
• State Route 421 (unsigned designation for I-516)
• Savannah River Parkway

Adjacent counties

• Jasper County, South Carolina – northeast
• Bryan County – west/southwest
• Liberty County - southeast
• Effingham County – northwest

National protected areas

• Fort Pulaski National Monument
• Savannah National Wildlife Refuge (part)
• Wassaw National Wildlife Refuge

Demographics

Historical populations
Census	Pop.		%±
1790	10,769		—
1800	12,946		20.2%
1810	13,540		4.6%
1820	14,737		8.8%
1830	14,127		−4.1%
1840	18,801		33.1%
1850	23,901		27.1%
1860	31,043		29.9%
1870	41,279		33.0%
1880	45,023		9.1%
1890	57,740		28.2%
1900	71,239		23.4%
1910	79,690		11.9%
1920	100,032		25.5%
1930	105,431		5.4%
1940	117,970		11.9%
1950	151,481		28.4%
1960	188,299		24.3%
1970	187,767		−0.3%
1980	202,226		7.7%
1990	216,935		7.3%
2000	232,048		7.0%
2010	265,128		14.3%
U.S. Decennial Census 1790-1960 1900-1990 1990-2000 2010-2020

As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 265,128 people, 103,038 households, and 64,613 families residing in the county. The population density was 621.7 inhabitants per square mile (240.0 /km²). There were 119,323 housing units at an average density of 279.8 per square mile (108.0 /km²). The racial makeup of the county was 52.8% white, 40.1% black or African American, 2.4% Asian, 0.3% American Indian, 0.1% Pacific islander, 2.2% from other races, and 2.1% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 5.4% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 9.8% were Irish, 8.7% were English, 7.9% were German, and 4.6% were American.

Of the 103,038 households, 31.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.0% were married couples living together, 17.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 37.3% were non-families, and 28.7% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.45 and the average family size was 3.03. The median age was 34.0 years.

The median income for a household in the county was $44,928 and the median income for a family was $54,933. Males had a median income of $42,239 versus $31,778 for females. The per capita income for the county was $25,397. About 11.6% of families and 16.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.4% of those under age 18 and 10.8% of those age 65 or over.

Education

Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools headquarters

See also: Savannah, Georgia#Education

Public schools are operated by Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools.

Government and infrastructure

The Coastal State Prison, a Georgia Department of Corrections state prison, is located in Savannah, near Garden City.

Chatham County is primarily policed by the Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department (SCMPD) and the Georgia State Patrol. The Chatham County Sheriff's Office is the enforcement arm of the county court system and operates the county jail. The SCMPD was formed on January 1, 2005 when the separate Savannah Police Department and Chatham County Police merged.

Communities

Municipalities

Cities

• Bloomingdale
• Garden City
• Pooler
• Port Wentworth
• Savannah
• Tybee Island

Towns

• Thunderbolt
• Vernonburg

Census-designated places (unincorporated)

• Dutch Island
• Georgetown
• Henderson
• Isle of Hope
• Montgomery
• Skidaway Island
• Talahi Island
• Whitemarsh Island
• Wilmington Island

Other unincorporated communities

• Pin Point
• White Bluff
• Sandfly

Politics

Chatham County was one of the earliest counties in Georgia to convert from a Solid South voting pattern. From 1952 to 2000, the county went Republican all but four times. Hubert Humphrey carried it by 95 votes in 1968. Jimmy Carter won a majority in both of his runs for president, and in 1996, Bill Clinton became the first non-Georgian Democrat to win a majority since Humphrey.

The county has voted majority Democratic in every presidential election since 2004, when John Kerry carried it by fewer than 150 votes. It swung dramatically to support Barack Obama in 2008, making Obama only the second non-Georgian Democrat to win a majority of the county's vote since Humphrey. Since then, Chatham has tended to vote substantially more for the Democratic Party at the presidential level than the state as a whole. In the last four presidential elections, the Democrats have recorded the biggest margins for a non-Georgian Democrat since Roosevelt's landslides. This culminated in 2020, when Joe Biden took 58.6% of the vote, outdoing Carter's 57% in 1980, because it is a primarily urban county with a large African-American population, especially in its principal city of Savannah. Since 2008, it has been one of the most Democratic urban counties in the state outside of the Atlanta area, and one of the few Democratic pockets in mostly heavily Republican South Georgia.

United States presidential election results for Chatham County, Georgia

Year	Republican		Democratic		Third party
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
2020	53,232	39.88%	78,247	58.62%	2,005	1.50%
2016	45,688	40.41%	62,290	55.10%	5,073	4.49%
2012	47,204	43.38%	60,246	55.36%	1,371	1.26%
2008	46,829	42.40%	62,755	56.82%	858	0.78%
2004	45,484	49.62%	45,630	49.78%	557	0.61%
2000	37,847	49.49%	37,590	49.15%	1,038	1.36%
1996	31,987	44.88%	35,781	50.20%	3,509	4.92%
1992	31,925	44.30%	31,533	43.75%	8,611	11.95%
1988	35,623	58.12%	25,063	40.89%	603	0.98%
1984	38,482	57.65%	28,271	42.35%	0	0.00%
1980	26,499	46.67%	28,413	50.04%	1,869	3.29%
1976	24,160	42.96%	32,075	57.04%	0	0.00%
1972	38,079	70.98%	15,566	29.02%	0	0.00%
1968	18,106	33.81%	18,201	33.99%	17,238	32.19%
1964	33,141	58.85%	23,176	41.15%	1	0.00%
1960	17,935	52.48%	16,240	47.52%	0	0.00%
1956	14,520	62.54%	8,698	37.46%	0	0.00%
1952	15,532	51.94%	14,370	48.06%	0	0.00%
1948	5,966	24.97%	10,864	45.46%	7,067	29.57%
1944	2,058	19.09%	8,725	80.91%	0	0.00%
1940	1,985	16.47%	10,048	83.37%	19	0.16%
1936	1,227	10.89%	10,019	88.90%	24	0.21%
1932	1,669	17.13%	8,020	82.31%	55	0.56%
1928	5,288	48.86%	5,534	51.14%	0	0.00%
1924	1,800	20.42%	6,158	69.86%	857	9.72%
1920	995	19.00%	4,243	81.00%	0	0.00%
1916	616	12.88%	3,797	79.42%	368	7.70%
1912	332	7.49%	3,864	87.14%	238	5.37%
1908	1,209	26.54%	3,305	72.54%	42	0.92%
1904	363	12.01%	2,645	87.52%	14	0.46%
1900	916	21.43%	3,352	78.41%	7	0.16%
1896	1,697	35.64%	2,506	52.64%	558	11.72%
1892	1,359	20.35%	5,264	78.83%	55	0.82%
1888	1,355	25.41%	3,920	73.52%	57	1.07%
1884	1,747	35.72%	3,144	64.28%	0	0.00%
1880	2,160	38.82%	3,404	61.18%	0	0.00%

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Chatham County, Georgia

External links

• Official web site
• Documents from Chatham County at the Digital Library of Georgia