Like all states, Georgia has certain places that are going on hard times. These Georgia places have an above-average percentage of people living in poverty, out of work, or not making as much as they should be.
Even as the economy continues to improve, it’s worthwhile to look at the places in each state struggling to make ends meet. So we set our sites on locating the poorest places in Georgia.
To do so, we used Saturday Night Science to analyze the newest Census data from the American Community Survey for the 134 cities in Georgia with more than 5,000 people.
$38,137 median income · 38.0% poverty · #5 lowest income in Georgia
Camilla, unfortunately, ranks as the poorest place in Georgia thanks to combination of low pay and and a lack of jobs.
The city of 5,124 people averages the 5th lowest median household income in Georgia and the 2nd highest poverty rate. At the very least, the cost of living ranks in the bottom 15% of place in the state, so things like housing are relatively affordable.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$41,616 median income · 40.5% poverty · #12 lowest income in Georgia
Located in
Baldwin County, Georgia
The second poorest city in Georgia is Milledgeville.
The city ranks as having the highest incidence of poverty and 12th lowest median household income. However, the unemployment rate ‘only’ ranks as the 39th highest in the Peach State.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$34,408 median income · 29.7% poverty · #2 lowest income in Georgia
Located in
Coffee County, Georgia
Placing as the third poorest city, Douglas’s median income ranks as the 2nd lowest.
And that’s a sign that there’s a relatively substantial jump in the quality of the economy from second to third place on our list. The poverty rate is 29.7% and ranks near the bottom of places in the state.
But what makes up for the relatively low incomes of the city is its low cost of living. The income you do make here goes further than in most parts of the Peach State.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$34,754 median income · 30.7% poverty · #3 lowest income in Georgia
Located in
Polk County, Georgia
Cedartown ranks as the fourth poorest place in Georgia.
The town ranks as having the 3rd lowest median household income and the 12th highest incidence of poverty in the state.
That being said, there’s still a ton of cultural diversity in the city as it hosts many events throughout the year.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$38,301 median income · 32.7% poverty · #6 lowest income in Georgia
Located in
Ware County, Georgia
The fifth poorest city in Georgia is Waycross.
The city ranks as having the 6th lowest median income in the state. However, an extremely low cost of living prevents a good number of folks from living in poverty as the poverty rate only ranks as the 9th highest in Georgia.
Still not the best news for Waycross.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$33,800 median income · 29.0% poverty · #1 lowest income in Georgia
Located in
Crisp County, Georgia
Cordele ranks as the sixth poorest place in the Peach State.
It ranks as having the 16th highest incidence of poverty and the 29th highest unemployment rate.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$42,988 median income · 36.3% poverty · #15 lowest income in Georgia
Located in
Laurens County, Georgia
Dublin places as the seventh poorest city in Georgia.
The city of over 16,136 ranks as having the 3rd highest incidence of poverty in the state. However, it has a very low cost of living which helps to pay the bills each month.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$39,176 median income · 32.7% poverty · #8 lowest income in Georgia
Located in
Sumter County, Georgia
Americus ranks as the eighth poorest city in Georgia.
The big issue for the town is the unemployment rate which ranks as one of the highest in the state.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$40,288 median income · 30.9% poverty · #9 lowest income in Georgia
Located in
Glynn County, Georgia
Brunswick couldn’t stay out of the top ten poorest places in Georgia; it ranks number 9.
While the median income is the 9th lowest, there are a substantial number of people that live below the poverty line. Overall, Brunswick ranks as having the 11th most people living in poverty of all the places we analyzed in Georgia.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$44,737 median income · 36.0% poverty · #21 lowest income in Georgia
Located in
Bulloch County, Georgia
And rounding out the top ten poorest cities in Georgia is Statesboro.
The city of 34,149 people ranks in the bottom 20% for both median income and poverty rate in the Peach State.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Georgia’s statewide median.
Georgia statewide median: $77,353
Georgia statewide median: 13.4%
Georgia statewide median: 5.1%
On the map
Where poverty hits hardest in Georgia
Saturday Night Science
How we determined the poorest places in Georgia for 2026
The first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they think about determining the poorest places is to simply the poverty rate. That is, the number of people living below a federally established level of income for a household of a certain size.
However, we don’t think that one statistic wholly encompasses what it means to be one of the “poorest places”. So we used Saturday Night Science to look at this set of criteria from the newly released 2020-2024 American Community Survey:
- Poverty Level
- Median Household Income
After we collected the data for all 134 places with more than 5,000 people in Georgia, we ranked each place from 1 to 134 for each of the criteria, with 1 being the poorest.
We then averaged all the rankings for a place into a “Poor Score” with the place having the lowest overall Poor Score, Camilla, crowned the “Poorest Place In Georgia For 2026”. The median Georgia home is 33 years old — old enough that it pays to compare home warranty plans before something expensive breaks.
The full plate
Detailed list of the poorest places to live in Georgia
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Poor Score | Population | Median income | Poverty | Unemployment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Camilla | 3.50 | 5,124 | $38,137 | 38.0% | 10.9% |
| 2 | Milledgeville | 6.50 | 16,748 | $41,616 | 40.5% | 6.9% |
| 3 | Douglas | 7.50 | 11,749 | $34,408 | 29.7% | 6.4% |
| 4 | Cedartown | 7.50 | 10,227 | $34,754 | 30.7% | 6.8% |
| 5 | Waycross | 7.50 | 13,756 | $38,301 | 32.7% | 11.6% |
| 6 | Cordele | 8.50 | 9,994 | $33,800 | 29.0% | 7.5% |
| 7 | Dublin | 9.00 | 16,136 | $42,988 | 36.3% | 7.4% |
| 8 | Americus | 9.00 | 15,813 | $39,176 | 32.7% | 5.4% |
| 9 | Brunswick | 10.00 | 15,307 | $40,288 | 30.9% | 7.6% |
| 10 | Statesboro | 12.50 | 34,149 | $44,737 | 36.0% | 9.0% |
| 11 | Thomaston | 13.00 | 9,831 | $38,917 | 28.1% | 4.5% |
| 12 | Fitzgerald | 13.00 | 8,918 | $37,323 | 27.8% | 3.2% |
| 13 | Monroe | 14.00 | 15,648 | $44,656 | 33.8% | 11.6% |
| 14 | Cairo | 14.00 | 10,055 | $40,920 | 28.8% | 5.2% |
| 15 | Thomson | 15.50 | 6,821 | $42,180 | 28.8% | 0.8% |
| 16 | Moultrie | 19.00 | 14,588 | $43,670 | 28.0% | 7.1% |
| 17 | Clarkston | 19.50 | 14,557 | $48,564 | 34.4% | 8.1% |
| 18 | Waynesboro | 20.00 | 5,644 | $41,620 | 26.0% | 6.1% |
| 19 | Jonesboro | 23.00 | 6,143 | $50,843 | 35.3% | 10.8% |
| 20 | Griffin | 23.50 | 23,761 | $43,632 | 25.2% | 6.3% |
| 21 | Adel | 24.50 | 5,641 | $43,618 | 23.9% | 6.8% |
| 22 | Valdosta | 25.00 | 55,252 | $45,925 | 26.1% | 5.7% |
| 23 | Swainsboro | 25.50 | 7,571 | $49,750 | 29.0% | 13.8% |
| 24 | Forest Park | 26.00 | 19,504 | $41,211 | 20.3% | 5.7% |
| 25 | Albany | 26.00 | 67,224 | $47,240 | 27.5% | 11.2% |
| 26 | Fort Valley | 26.50 | 8,858 | $50,283 | 29.6% | 7.4% |
| 27 | Bainbridge | 27.00 | 14,404 | $45,422 | 24.1% | 9.8% |
| 28 | LaGrange | 27.00 | 32,078 | $43,708 | 22.9% | 9.0% |
| 29 | Tifton | 28.00 | 17,210 | $45,298 | 23.5% | 3.4% |
| 30 | Vidalia | 30.50 | 10,752 | $49,370 | 25.7% | 5.4% |
| 31 | Blakely | 30.50 | 5,238 | $49,821 | 26.8% | 4.2% |
| 32 | Toccoa | 31.50 | 9,238 | $48,438 | 23.9% | 8.8% |
| 33 | Jesup | 32.50 | 9,942 | $46,974 | 20.9% | 11.1% |
| 34 | Athens-Clarke County unified government (balance) | 35.00 | 127,345 | $52,974 | 26.5% | 5.3% |
| 35 | Jackson | 36.00 | 5,741 | $46,191 | 19.4% | 5.7% |
| 36 | Carrollton | 37.50 | 27,392 | $54,379 | 25.4% | 5.2% |
| 37 | Sylvester | 37.50 | 5,489 | $58,417 | 27.9% | 6.1% |
| 38 | College Park | 39.50 | 14,712 | $51,635 | 20.7% | 17.0% |
| 39 | Stone Mountain | 42.50 | 6,623 | $46,973 | 16.6% | 7.0% |
| 40 | Rome | 43.00 | 38,189 | $54,435 | 20.6% | 5.9% |
| 41 | Sandersville | 44.50 | 5,601 | $49,833 | 18.5% | 15.4% |
| 42 | Dahlonega | 45.50 | 7,299 | $77,516 | 35.9% | 8.2% |
| 43 | Augusta-Richmond County consolidated government (balance) | 45.50 | 201,528 | $55,485 | 20.1% | 8.6% |
| 44 | Thomasville | 45.50 | 18,666 | $49,673 | 17.1% | 5.9% |
| 45 | Glennville | 46.00 | 5,179 | $52,844 | 19.1% | 9.9% |
| 46 | LaFayette | 46.00 | 6,967 | $46,018 | 14.3% | 0.6% |
| 47 | Savannah | 48.00 | 147,898 | $57,137 | 19.7% | 7.2% |
| 48 | Covington | 48.00 | 14,584 | $58,810 | 20.4% | 7.3% |
| 49 | Lilburn | 50.00 | 15,390 | $63,581 | 22.9% | 5.1% |
| 50 | Columbus | 51.00 | 203,711 | $58,073 | 19.0% | 6.3% |
| 51 | Union City | 51.50 | 27,728 | $49,549 | 14.2% | 5.8% |
| 52 | Eastman | 53.50 | 5,584 | $52,394 | 15.3% | 4.0% |
| 53 | Eatonton | 54.00 | 6,515 | $56,250 | 16.6% | 4.3% |
| 54 | Gainesville | 54.50 | 45,032 | $66,974 | 20.1% | 3.3% |
| 55 | Garden City | 55.00 | 10,426 | $47,814 | 12.8% | 8.6% |
| 56 | Dalton | 56.50 | 34,538 | $63,577 | 18.6% | 4.3% |
| 57 | East Point | 57.00 | 38,335 | $68,598 | 19.9% | 6.9% |
| 58 | Doraville | 60.00 | 11,134 | $67,235 | 18.3% | 1.2% |
| 59 | Barnesville | 61.50 | 6,121 | $57,411 | 14.0% | 5.6% |
| 60 | Lawrenceville | 61.50 | 30,954 | $61,561 | 15.4% | 5.1% |
| 61 | Morrow | 62.00 | 6,364 | $73,693 | 19.1% | 8.8% |
| 62 | Calhoun | 62.50 | 18,183 | $58,750 | 14.1% | 2.3% |
| 63 | Hinesville | 64.50 | 35,679 | $60,028 | 14.0% | 8.5% |
| 64 | Centerville | 65.50 | 8,505 | $68,922 | 16.5% | 7.2% |
| 65 | Cusseta-Chattahoochee County unified government | 66.00 | 8,887 | $61,042 | 13.9% | 9.1% |
| 66 | Fort Oglethorpe | 66.50 | 10,416 | $51,867 | 11.1% | 5.7% |
| 67 | St. Marys | 66.50 | 19,166 | $74,288 | 17.4% | 7.6% |
| 68 | Warner Robins | 67.00 | 82,990 | $66,970 | 14.2% | 6.4% |
| 69 | Conyers | 68.50 | 18,512 | $63,140 | 13.4% | 9.4% |
| 70 | Locust Grove | 71.00 | 10,532 | $75,083 | 15.9% | 9.9% |
| 71 | Winder | 71.50 | 19,437 | $63,779 | 13.2% | 5.5% |
| 72 | Dallas | 72.00 | 14,714 | $75,545 | 16.3% | 8.3% |
| 73 | Riverdale | 73.00 | 14,792 | $63,455 | 12.4% | 5.0% |
| 74 | Norcross | 73.00 | 18,007 | $75,266 | 15.2% | 2.2% |
| 75 | Chamblee | 75.50 | 30,895 | $84,452 | 18.0% | 2.2% |
| 76 | Hampton | 77.00 | 8,687 | $75,052 | 13.4% | 5.0% |
| 77 | Buford | 77.00 | 17,997 | $69,471 | 12.6% | 4.5% |
| 78 | Marietta | 78.00 | 62,263 | $72,725 | 12.8% | 3.8% |
| 79 | Atlanta | 79.00 | 505,268 | $85,652 | 16.9% | 5.9% |
| 80 | Perry | 79.00 | 23,001 | $76,909 | 13.9% | 4.6% |
| 81 | Stockbridge | 79.00 | 35,737 | $70,136 | 12.3% | 6.5% |
| 82 | Fairburn | 81.50 | 16,831 | $91,897 | 17.5% | 3.2% |
| 83 | Commerce | 83.50 | 8,013 | $60,961 | 8.3% | 1.1% |
| 84 | Austell | 84.00 | 8,447 | $72,938 | 10.8% | 5.5% |
| 85 | Canton | 84.50 | 35,741 | $80,091 | 12.9% | 4.7% |
| 86 | Auburn | 86.50 | 8,711 | $77,034 | 11.7% | 4.6% |
| 87 | Lovejoy | 88.00 | 11,508 | $71,612 | 9.2% | 4.3% |
| 88 | McDonough | 88.50 | 30,947 | $75,343 | 10.6% | 5.5% |
| 89 | Port Wentworth | 89.00 | 12,892 | $79,731 | 11.2% | 5.1% |
| 90 | Oakwood | 89.50 | 5,862 | $67,917 | 8.1% | 3.0% |
| 91 | Cartersville | 90.00 | 24,074 | $84,437 | 12.4% | 2.7% |
| 92 | Cumming | 90.00 | 8,469 | $85,868 | 13.4% | 2.4% |
| 93 | Kingsland | 90.50 | 19,627 | $77,944 | 10.7% | 3.2% |
| 94 | Douglasville | 90.50 | 37,536 | $79,107 | 10.7% | 6.0% |
| 95 | Rockmart | 90.50 | 5,204 | $56,828 | 3.1% | 8.7% |
| 96 | Hiram | 92.50 | 5,231 | $85,119 | 12.0% | 3.8% |
| 97 | Powder Springs | 93.00 | 18,009 | $105,070 | 14.6% | 4.4% |
| 98 | Villa Rica | 95.50 | 18,551 | $87,803 | 11.8% | 3.6% |
| 99 | Kennesaw | 96.00 | 34,605 | $83,356 | 10.3% | 6.1% |
| 100 | Grovetown | 96.00 | 17,014 | $85,660 | 11.1% | 4.0% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. 134 cities with more than 5,000 residents.
Summary
The poorest cities in Georgia for 2026
Like we said earlier, when we set out to identify the poorest places in Georgia, we weren’t sure what we’d encounter, but it ended up being some of the best places to live in Georgia.
When you look at the data, the cities and places mentioned above meet the criteria for being at the very bottom of the income ladder for everyone that lives there. Not sold on Georgia? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
