In every table, counties with asterisks (*) beside their names are
metropolitan counties, or counties that are part of a Metropolitan Statistical
Area (MSA). All other counties are considered nonmetropolitan. In 2003, Georgia
had 70 metropolitan and 89 nonmetropolitan counties.
AGRICULTURE
Farm Income and Production Expenses: 2001
Farm gross income
consists of estimates for the following items: Cash receipts from the marketing
of crops and livestock; income from other farm-related activities, including
recreational services and the sale of forest products; government payments to
farmers; the value of food and fuel produced and consumed on farms; the gross
rental value of farm dwellings; and the value of the net change in the physical
volume of farm inventories of crops and livestock. Production expenses include
the expenses associated with farm dwellings.
The BEA State totals
used to estimate farm earnings are based on the State estimates of the income
of all farms prepared by the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department
of Agriculture (USDA). BEA modifies the USDA estimates to conform to the
definitions and classifications of the national income and product accounts.
The methods used to estimate farm proprietors' income at the county level rely
heavily on data obtained from the censuses of agriculture and on selected
annual county data prepared by the State offices affiliated with the National
Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), USDA. The NASS data are used, wherever
possible, to interpolate and extrapolate the census-based estimates to
non-census years. Administrative records data from the Farm Service Agency of
USDA are used directly to account for total government program payments to
farmers.
Farms and Harvested
Cropland: 1969-1997
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
Per Capita Income:
1996-2001
Per capita personal
income is calculated as the total personal income of the residents of an area
divided by the population of the area and 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.
Total Personal
Income; Earnings by Industry: 2001
Personal Income 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.
The estimates of
total earnings by place of work are provided at the North American Industrial
Classification Industry (NAICS) subsector level. The principal source data for
the wage and salary portion of BEA's earnings estimates are from the Bureau of
Labor Statistics. BEA suppresses these
estimates in many individual cases in order to preclude the disclosure of information
about individual employers.
Transfer Payments:
2001
Transfer payments‑‑Transfer
payments are payments to persons for which they do not render services in the
current period. As a component of personal income, they are payments by
government and business to individuals and nonprofit institutions. Although
most of transfer payments are made in cash, they also include Medicare,
Medicaid, and food stamps. At the State level, approximately 90 percent of
total transfer payments are estimated on the basis of directly reported data.
The remaining 10 percent are estimated on the basis of indirect, but generally
reliable, data.
LABOR
Establishments, Employment and Wages: 2001
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.
Establishment: This
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, which 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.
POPULATION
Migration Flow Based on IRS Tax Returns: 2001-2002
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 Anon-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.
Natural Increase and Net Migration: 1990-2000 and
2000-2002
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. 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.
Estimates of natural
increase and net migration from 1990-2000 are based on the numerical change
between census counts taken in 1990 and 2000 and the number of births and
deaths recorded by the GA Dept. of Public Health from April 1990 through March
2000.
Farm, Rural and Urban: 1990-2003
The Census Bureau
defines “urban” for the 2000 Census as all territory, population and housing units in urbanized areas and in
places of more than 2,500 persons outside of urbanized areas. "Urban"
classification cuts across other hierarchies and can be in metropolitan or
non-metropolitan areas. An “urbanized
area” consists of a central place(s) and adjacent territory with a general
population density of at least 1,000 people per square mile of land area that
together have a minimum residential population of at least 50,000 people. The
Census Bureau uses published criteria to determine the qualification and
boundaries of UAs. “Rural” consists of territory, population and housing units
not classified as urban. The "rural" classification cuts across other
hierarchies and can be in metropolitan or non-metropolitan areas.
Rural-urban
Continuum Codes form a classification scheme that distinguishes metropolitan
(metro) counties by the population size of their metro area, and nonmetropolitan
(nonmetro) counties by degree of urbanization and adjacency to a metro area or
areas. The metro and nonmetro categories have been subdivided into three metro
and six nonmetro groupings, resulting in a nine-part county codification. The
codes allow researchers working with county data to break such data into finer
residential groups beyond a simple metro-nonmetro dichotomy, particularly for
the analysis of trends in nonmetro areas that may be related to degree of
rurality and metro proximity.
Code Description
Metro counties:
1 Counties of
metro areas of 1 million population or more.
2 Counties in
metro areas of 250,000 to 1 million population.
3 Counties in
metro areas of fewer than 250,000 population.
Nonmetro counties:
4 Urban
population of 20,000 or more, adjacent to a metro area.
5 Urban
population of 20,000 or more, not adjacent to a metro area.
6 Urban
population of 2,500 to 19,999, adjacent to a metro area.
7 Urban
population of 2,500 to 19,999, not adjacent to a metro area.
8 Completely
rural or less than 2,500 urban population, adjacent to a metro area.
9 Completely
rural or less than 2,500 urban population, not adjacent to a metro area.
Metropolitan,
Micropolitan and Combined Statistical Areas:
2003
The general concept
of a metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area is that of a core area
containing a substantial population nucleus, together with adjacent communities
having a high degree of economic and social integration with that core.
The term "core
based statistical area" (CBSA) became effective in 2000 and refers
collectively to metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas. The 2000
standards provide that each CBSA must contain at least one urban area of 10,000
or more population. Each metropolitan statistical area must have at least one
urbanized area of 50,000 or more inhabitants. Each micropolitan statistical
area must have at least one urban cluster of at least 10,000 but less than
50,000 population. Under the standards, the county (or counties) in which at
least 50 percent of the population resides within urban areas of 10,000 or more
population, or that contain at least 5,000 people residing within a single
urban area of 10,000 or more population, is identified as a "central
county" (counties). Additional
"outlying counties" are included in the CBSA if they meet specified
requirements of commuting to or from the central counties.
If specified criteria are met, adjacent metropolitan and micropolitan
statistical areas, in various combinations, may become the components of a new
set of areas called Combined Statistical Areas (CSA). For instance, a combined
statistical area may comprise two or more metropolitan statistical areas, a
metropolitan statistical area and a micropolitan statistical area, two or more
micropolitan statistical areas, or multiple metropolitan and micropolitan
statistical areas.
PUBLIC ASSISTANCE
Child Protective Services: 2002
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.
VITAL STATISTICS
Births, Total and by Race: 1992-2001
Crude Birth Rate = [Total
Live Births / Total Population] * 1,000
Induced Terminations: 1992-2001
General Induced
Termination Rate =
[Total Induced
Terminations / Total Females age 15-44] * 1,000
Teen Pregnancy Rate =
[Total Teen Pregnancies / Total Fem. age 10-19] * 1,000
Deaths, Total and by Race: 1992-2001
Crude Death Rate =
[Total Population / Total Deaths] * 100,000
Deaths by Lifestage: 2001
Infant Death Rate = [Deaths < 1 Yr. of Age /
Total Live Births] * 1,000
Deaths; Suicides & Homicides: 1992-2001
Suicide Rate = [Total Suicides / Total Population]
* 100,000
Homicide Rate =
[Total Homicides / Total Population] * 100,000
Teen Suicide Rate =
[Total Teen Suicides / Total Pop. ages 10-19] * 100,000