County facts · Land area · October 21, 2026
Largest Counties in Georgia by Area and Population
The largest Georgia counties by land area and by 2023 population, plus the smallest, county seats and a link to each official parcel map.
Looking for the largest counties in Georgia? Georgia has 159 counties covering about 57,717 square miles of land, based on the Census Bureau's 2020 Gazetteer. The largest by land area is Ware County, at about 899 square miles, roughly 7.5 times the size of the smallest, Clarke County (119 sq mi). Measured by people instead, the largest is Fulton County, with about 1,079,105 residents in the Census Bureau's July 1, 2023 estimate.
Each table below links the county's Platbookmapper page and its official parcel viewer, so you can go straight from the numbers to the property lines.
Georgia counties at a glance
- Counties: 159
- Land area: about 57,717 sq mi, plus about 1,706 sq mi of water inside county lines
- Residents, 2023 estimates: about 11,029,227, or about 191 people per square mile of land
- Median county land area: about 343 sq mi
- With a verified public parcel viewer in our directory: 159 of 159
The 10 largest Georgia counties by land area
| # | County | Seat | Land (sq mi) | 2023 pop. | People per sq mi | Parcel viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ware County | Waycross | 899 | 36,243 | 40 | qPublic (Schneider Geospatial) |
| 2 | Burke County | Waynesboro | 827 | 24,438 | 30 | qPublic (Schneider Geospatial) |
| 3 | Clinch County | Homerville | 815 | 6,746 | 8.3 | qPublic (Schneider Geospatial) |
| 4 | Laurens County | Dublin | 807 | 49,941 | 62 | qPublic (Schneider Geospatial) |
| 5 | Charlton County | Folkston | 780 | 12,934 | 17 | qPublic (Schneider Geospatial) |
| 6 | Emanuel County | Swainsboro | 681 | 23,119 | 34 | qPublic (Schneider Geospatial) |
| 7 | Washington County | Sandersville | 679 | 19,820 | 29 | GSA property search map |
| 8 | Bulloch County | Statesboro | 676 | 84,327 | 125 | ArcGIS Web AppBuilder |
| 9 | Screven County | Sylvania | 646 | 14,174 | 22 | qPublic (Schneider Geospatial) |
| 10 | Wayne County | Jesup | 642 | 31,373 | 49 | qPublic (Schneider Geospatial) |
Together these 10 cover about 13% of Georgia's land area and hold about 3% of its residents.
The 10 most populous Georgia counties
| # | County | Seat | 2023 pop. | Land (sq mi) | Parcel viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fulton County | Atlanta | 1,079,105 | 527 | county web map |
| 2 | Gwinnett County | Lawrenceville | 983,526 | 431 | county web map |
| 3 | Cobb County | Marietta | 776,743 | 340 | ArcGIS Web AppBuilder |
| 4 | DeKalb County | Decatur | 762,992 | 268 | ArcGIS Experience Builder |
| 5 | Chatham County | Savannah | 303,655 | 433 | county web map |
| 6 | Clayton County | Jonesboro | 298,300 | 142 | ArcGIS Experience Builder |
| 7 | Cherokee County | Canton | 286,602 | 421 | Spatialest |
| 8 | Forsyth County | Cumming | 272,887 | 225 | qPublic (Schneider Geospatial) |
| 9 | Henry County | McDonough | 254,613 | 319 | qPublic (Schneider Geospatial) |
| 10 | Hall County | Gainesville | 217,267 | 393 | qPublic (Schneider Geospatial) |
These 10 hold about 47% of Georgia's residents in the 2023 estimates.
The 5 smallest Georgia counties by land area
| County | Seat | Land (sq mi) | 2023 pop. | Parcel viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clarke County | Athens | 119 | 129,933 | qPublic (Schneider Geospatial) |
| Rockdale County | Conyers | 130 | 95,987 | qPublic (Schneider Geospatial) |
| Clayton County | Jonesboro | 142 | 298,300 | ArcGIS Experience Builder |
| Glascock County | Gibson | 144 | 2,954 | qPublic (Schneider Geospatial) |
| Peach County | Fort Valley | 150 | 28,805 | qPublic (Schneider Geospatial) |
Most and least crowded
- Most people per square mile: DeKalb County, about 2,850 (then Cobb County, 2,286, and Gwinnett County, 2,283)
- Fewest people per square mile: Baker County, about 8.0 (then Taliaferro County, 8.3, and Clinch County, 8.3)
Counties with the most water
The Census Bureau reports water separately from land. It counts lakes, reservoirs, rivers and, for coastal and Great Lakes counties, the water inside the county boundary.
- Chatham County: about 197 sq mi of water, 31% of its total area
- Glynn County: about 166 sq mi of water, 28% of its total area
- Camden County: about 152 sq mi of water, 19% of its total area
Using these numbers in a land search
- Land area is not parcel count. A large rural county can hold fewer parcels than a small suburban one, so size alone says little about how busy its parcel map is.
- Search, don't scroll. In a big county, type an address, owner name or parcel number into the viewer's search box, where it has one, instead of panning across the map.
- Records follow the county line. Deeds, plats and tax bills are kept by the county where the parcel sits, so a tract that crosses a county line usually has a parcel number in each county.
- Rounded figures. Land and water areas are rounded to whole square miles. People per square mile is the 2023 estimate divided by land area.
Related guides
- Georgia county GIS websites by viewer
- Georgia plat maps
- Georgia landowner maps for hunting
- County map of Georgia
- Alabama–Georgia border counties
- Florida–Georgia border counties
- Georgia–South Carolina border counties
More: All Georgia counties on Platbookmapper
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau Gazetteer files, 2020 county land and water area.
- U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program, county totals, Vintage 2023 (July 1, 2023 estimates)
- Platbookmapper county GIS directory (live data file behind our county pages, pulled October 21, 2026) for each county's official parcel viewer.
- County seats: Wikidata (county seat property), cross-checked against Census place names.