Appendix
This is additional information about some statistics contained in the Georgia County Guide.
It is organized according to the main subject categories that appear in this web site, which
agree with the ones in the printed version of the Georgia County Guide.
AGRICULTURE
Farms and Harvested Cropland: 1964-1997.
Since 1850, when minimum criteria defining a farm for census
purposes first were established, the farm definition has changed
nine times. The current definition, first used for the 1974
census, is any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural
products were produced and sold, or normally would have been
sold, during the census year. The following definition, used for
the 1959, 1964, and 1969 censuses, counted a farm as any place
with less than 10 acres from which $250 or more of agricultural
products were sold or normally would have been sold during the
census year, or any place of 10 acres or more from which $50 or
more of agricultural products were sold or normally would have
been sold during the census year.
ECONOMICS
Median Income: 1989-1995
Poverty Characteristics: 1989-1995
The Census Bureau used statistical models to relate income and
poverty to indicators based on summary data from federal income
tax returns, data about participation in the Food Stamp and
Supplemental Security Income programs, and the previous census.
These estimates are then combined with direct estimates based on
the "Current Population Survey" sample to provide figures which
are more precise than either set alone. This is a standard method
for making statistical estimates for small areas. The final
combined estimates are referred to as "model-based."
Migration Flow Based on IRS Tax Filing Years:1997-1998
Migration flow data show migration patterns based on year-to-year
changes in the addresses entered on individual income tax returns
by taxpayers. The data are the result of a joint effort between
the IRS and the Census Bureau. The data were developed by
matching the records of individual income tax returns filed in a
'base year" with the tax returns filed in the following year,
using the social security number of the "primary taxpayer" (on
joint returns, the secondary taxpayer number was not used). If
the county of residence listed did not change, the taxpayer was
considered a "non-migrant." If the base year county of residence
did not match, the taxpayer was considered an "out-migrant."
Those taxpayers whose "following year" county matched were
considered "in-migrants." The counts for personal exemptions
represent actual number of individuals [taxpayer(s) and
dependents] who were reported on the tax return. The Census
Bureau calculated the median total money income by placing the
values into intervals. While the resulting values are not true
medians, it is believed that they are reliable estimates of the
true median.
Per Capita Income: 1993-1998
Per capita personal income--This measure of income is calculated
as the total personal income of the residents of an area divided
by the population of the area. Per capita personal income is
often used as an indicator of the quality of consumer markets and
of the economic well-being of the residents of an area. In
computing per capita personal income for States and counties, BEA
uses the Census Bureau's annual midyear population estimates.
Except for the college student and other seasonal populations,
which are measured on April 1, the population for all years is
estimated on July 1.
The local area estimates of per capita personal income should be
used cautiously for several reasons. In some instances, the
change in the per capita personal income of an area may be the
result of unusual conditions. For example, the income of an area
may be raised for a year as the result of a bumper crop, or it
may be reduced for a year as the result of a hurricane. In other
instances, the per capita personal income of an area may reflect
the income levels of certain groups of the resident population,
but it may not be indicative of the economic well-being of the
residents of the area. For example, the per capita income of an
area may be substantially raised for several years by a major
construction project--such as a defense facility, power plant, or
dam--that attracts highly paid workers whose wages and salaries
are measured at the construction site. However, this high per
capita income may not be indicative of the economic well-being of
most of the residents of the area (or, in many cases, of the
resident construction workers themselves, because they frequently
send a substantial portion of their wages to dependents who live
in other areas).
Conversely, the per capita income of an area may be reduced by
the presence of a large institutional population--like that of a
college or a prison--because little income is attributed to the
residents of these institutions. However, this low income may not
be indicative of the economic well-being of most of the residents
of the area (or, in many cases, of the institutional populations,
because some of these populations, such as college students,
typically receive support from their families who live in other
areas).
Further, the per capita income of areas where the population
changes rapidly can be misleading. Because population is measured
at midyear and because income is measured as a flow over the
year, the per capita income of an area can be distorted if the
population of an area changes significantly during the year,
particularly around midyear.
The per capita income of counties where farm proprietors' income
is a large portion of personal income can also be misleading.
Farm proprietors' income reflects current production, not current
cash flows. Farm proprietors' income excludes sales out of
inventories, which are included in current gross receipts,
because these sales represent income from a previous year's
production, not from current production. Furthermore, farm
proprietors' income includes the value of additions to
inventories. Therefore, the estimates of farm proprietors' income
do not reflect the farmers' attempts to regulate their cash flow
by adjusting inventories. In addition, the per capita income of
sparsely populated counties that are dependent on farming reacts
more sharply to weather and world market demand and to changing
government policies affecting agriculture than the per capita
income of counties where the sources of income are more
diversified.
Retail Sales: 1998
Effective Buying Income is a measure of income developed
exclusively by "Market Statistics" to distinguish it from those
reported by other data sources. EBI is defined as money income
less personal tax payments, a number often referred to as
"disposable" or "after-tax" income.
Total Retail Sales reflects net sales (minus refunds and
allowances for returns) for all establishments primarily engaged
in retail trade. Receipts from repairs and other services (by
retailers) are included, but retail sales by wholesalers and
service establishments are not. Net sales for some
establishments (e.g. lumber yards; paint, glass and wallpaper
stores; and office supply stores) are also included, even if they
sell more to businesses than to consumers.
Total Personal Income: 1993-1998
Personal income--The personal income of an area is defined as the
income that is received by, or on behalf of, all the individuals
who live in the area; therefore, the estimates of personal income
are presented by the place of residence of the income recipients.
Personal income consists of the income that is received by
persons from participation in production, from government and
business transfer payments, and from government interest (which
is treated like a transfer payment). It is calculated as the sum
of wage and salary disbursements, other labor income,
proprietors' income with inventory valuation and capital
consumption adjustments, rental income of persons with capital
consumption adjustment, personal dividend income, personal
interest income, and transfer payments to persons, less personal
contributions for social insurance.
Money income consists only of the income that is reported as
received by individuals in the decennial census of population.
Personal income for counties is prepared annually, whereas money
income for counties and cities is prepared decennially from the
data from the "long-form" sample conducted as part of the census
of population. Personal income, unlike money income, includes
imputed income, all lump-sum payments except those received as
part of earnings, certain in-kind transfer payments--such as
Medicaid, Medicare, and food stamps--and employer contributions
to private health and pension funds. Personal income, unlike
money income, excludes personal contributions for social
insurance, income from private pensions and annuities, and income
from interpersonal transfers, such as child support.
Transfer Payments: 1998
Transfer payments--This component of personal income measures the
payments to persons for which no current services have been
performed. It consists of payments to individuals and to
nonprofit institutions by Federal, State, and local governments
and by businesses. They are payments by government and business
to individuals and nonprofit institutions. Transfer payments
consists of three major components--government payments to
individuals (retirement and disability insurance benefit
payments, medical benefits, income maintenance benefits,
unemployment insurance benefits, veterans benefit payments,
federal education and training benefits, and other government
payments to individuals), government and business payments to
nonprofit institutions, and business payments to individuals.
EDUCATION
Student Data: 1998-99
Students are reported as dropouts if they leave school for any
one of the following reasons: marriage, expelled, financial
hardship/job, incarcerated/under jurisdiction of juvenile justice
or criminal justice authority, low grades/school failure,
military, adult education/postsecondary, pregnant/parent, removed
for lack of attendance, serious illness/accident, and unknown.
The dropout rate is calculated by dividing the number of dropouts
reported by the school system on the October 1999 FTE count
divided by the total enrollment for the 1998-99 school year. The
total enrollment for the 1998-99 school year used for the
calculation of the dropout rate is an unduplicated count of
students from the October 1998 and March 1999 FTE counts, plus
any withdrawn students that were not counted in either of these
FTE counts. This more precise accounting of student enrollment is
different from the weighted average used for the 1995-96 and
1994-95 report cards. Therefore, due to the change in
calculation of total enrollment, the dropout rates reported for
1996-97, 1997-98 and 1998-99 are not comparable with previous
years' rates.
HEALTH
Child Abuse: 1999
A "case" count represents the total number of families entered
into the system. New information is added any time a new
investigation is completed. A case may include several children
and several incidents of maltreatment. An "incident" count
represents the number of maltreatment incidents that occurred to
any one child (i.e., a report of both physical abuse and neglect
on one child counts as two incidents of maltreatment). The number
of incidents will be greater than the number of cases; it will
equal or exceed the number of children.
LABOR
Government Establishments, Employment and Wages: 1999
Establishments, Employment and Wages: 1999
The employment and wage information is compiled from reports
submitted by employers who are subject to Georgia's Employment
Security Law. Because the law specifically protects the
confidentiality of individual employers, data are not disclosed
in the following cases: 1) There are fewer than three
establishments in an industry group, and/or 2) One establishment
accounts for 80 percent or more of the employment within the
group. (Federal government industry group does not need to meet
this criteria.)
"Establishment:" Usually indicates a single physical business
location. However, an employer operating two or more
establishments in the same type of business in a county may be
shown as one establishment. "Employment:" The numbers of
employees on payrolls of employers covered by the Employment
Security Law during the pay period that includes the 12th day of
the month. This includes full-time, part-time and temporary
workers and both hourly-paid and salaried employees. Employees
who were not on the payroll on the 12th of the month will not be
included. "Average Weekly Wages:" The total dollars paid
(including bonuses, incentive pay, etc.) To all employees (both
hourly and salaried) during the year divided by the average
number of employees. This figure is then divided by 52 weeks to
obtain a weekly figure.
NATURAL RESOURCES
Forest Land and Timberland: 1997
"Forest Land" is at least 10 percent stocked by forest trees of
any size, or formerly having had such tree cover, and not
currently developed for nonforest use. The minimum area
considered for classification is 1 acre. Forested strips must be
at least 120 feet wide. "Timberland" is forest land capable of
producing 20 cubic feet of industrial wood per acre per year and
not withdrawn from timber utilization.
Toxic Chemical Releases: 1998
The Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) chemical list includes over 700
different chemicals. The reports for 1998 for the first time
include release data for seven new industry sectors. In Georgia
the most significant of these new groups is the electric utility
category. Georgia is home to some large coal burning power
plants. These facilities burn very large amounts of coal and
their resultant emissions dominate the TRI for this year.
Categories of releases into the environment that are included in
the report are stack air emissions, fugitive air emissions,
direct charges to surface water, land, POTWs-- transfers to
publicly owned treatment works (municipal sewerage systems),
off-site transfers, and on-site.
POPULATION
Components of Change; Natural Increase and Net Migration: 1990-1999
Using Census Bureau figures for population, births and deaths,
deaths are subtracted from births to calculate "natural
increase." Natural increase is then subtracted from the numerical
estimate of population change to yield "net migration." Since a
negative numerical change indicates that there was no growth,
there would be a negative net migration, regardless of the
natural increase. Even when there is a positive natural
increase, there would be no percent natural increase if the area
had a decrease in population. When growth has occurred, but the
natural increase is greater than the growth, there is 100%
natural increase. When estimates indicate no growth, both natural
increase and net migration are 0%.
The "Net International" and "Net Domestic" migration is
calculated by the Census Bureau using IRS tax returns filed for
that period of time. The net migration estimate is derived from
tracking mailing addresses on consecutive federal income tax
returns. When an individual files a tax return in consecutive
years the mailing addresses in the two years are linked. If the
addresses are identical, it is assumed that movement did not
occur during the interval. When the addresses differ, they
determine whether the movement indicates a crossing of place,
county, or state boundaries. A sizeable portion of detected
movement will never affect a population estimate because many
moves are extremely local in nature. (e.g. movement between units
in the same apartment complex or even movement across town within
the same city). Even though mailing address and residential
address might not coincide, the basic premise of the
Administrative Records estimating procedure is that migration can
only have occurred when there is positive evidence (different
mailing addresses in consecutive years) that movement has taken
place during the interval between the two tax filings.
RELIGION
Religious Affiliation: 1990
Included in this table are the leading religions in Georgia based
on total number of adherents. Total adherents consist of all
members, including full members, their children and the estimated
number of other regular participants who are not considered as
communicants, confirmed or full members, for example, the
"baptized," "those not confirmed," "those not eligible for
communion," and the like. Membership statistics are generally
reported for the county in which the church itself is located,
rather than for the county in which the member resides. Baker,
Clay and Dooly counties report more adherents than total
population. Reasons for this may include U.S. Census undercount,
church membership overcount, or county of residence differing
from county of membership.
VITAL STATISTICS
Deaths: 1998
Death Rate = Total Population/Total Deaths X 1,000
Induced Terminations: 1998
Induced Termination Rate = Total Induced Terminations /Total
Females, age 15-44 X 1,000
Teen Pregnancy: 1994-1998
Teen Pregnancy Rate = Total Teen Pregnancies / Total Females age
10-19 X 1,000
Infant Deaths: 1984-1998
Infant Death Rate = Deaths < 1 Yr. of Age / Total Live Births X
1,000
Live Births: 1998
Crude Birth Rate = Total Live Births / Total Population X 1,000
Marriages & Divorces: 1996-1998
Marriage Rate = Total Marriages / Total Population X 1,000
Divorce Rate = Total Divorces / Total Population X 1,000
Suicides & Homicides: 1990-1998
Suicide Rate = Total Suicides / Total Population X 100,000
Homicide Rate = Total Homicides / Total Population X 100,000
Teen Suicides: 1990-1998
Teen Suicide Rate = Total Teen Suicides / Total Population, ages
10-19 X 1000,000
Click here to return to the homepage