Douglas County, Georgia

Douglas County is a county in Georgia, United States, about 20 miles west of Atlanta. It had a
population of 144,237 at the 2020 census, an estimated 154,293 by 2025, and covers 201 square
miles (520 km2) centred near 33°42′N 84°46′W.

Douglasville is the county seat and the county’s largest city; its postal code is 30134. The
county holds 3 cities, 2 census-designated places and 7 unincorporated communities, and it runs
on Eastern Time. Its FIPS code is 13097.

Towns & Villages in Douglas County

Douglas County has 12 named places on record: 3 incorporated cities, 2 census-designated
places, and 7 unincorporated communities with no local government of their own. CDP stands for
census designated place; Unincorp. covers crossroads and rural communities with no formal
boundary. Two of the cities straddle a county line and are only partly in Douglas.

Villa Rica and Austell both straddle county lines and their totals above are citywide, not
Douglas County-only figures. Slightly more than half of Villa Rica’s 16,970 residents live in
neighboring Carroll County, with the rest in Douglas. Austell runs the opposite way — only
about 40 of its 7,713 residents live in Douglas, with the remaining 6,541-plus in Cobb County to
the northeast. Lithia Springs was itself a city twice, in 1882 and again in 1994, before voters
dissolved it back to unincorporated CDP status in 2000. Winston was a chartered town from 1906
until its charter was repealed in 1995.

ZIP Codes

• 30134 — Douglasville (the seat’s primary ZIP)
• 30135 — Douglasville (southwestern side of the city)
• 30133 — Douglasville (rural western routes)
• 30154 — Douglasville (northern routes)
• 30122 — Lithia Springs (also used for the Douglasville side of the same corridor)
• 30180 — Villa Rica
• 30106 — Austell (Douglas County portion)
• 30187 — Winston (a ZIP shared with neighboring Carroll County)

Chapel Hill, Beulah, Bill Arp, Hannah, McWhorter, White City and Fairplay have no ZIP code of
their own; mail there is delivered under Douglasville’s or Lithia Springs’ codes depending on
which side of the community it falls.

Geography

Douglas County sits in the north-central part of Georgia, on the western edge of Metro
Atlanta, in the Piedmont region’s rolling hills. Of its 201 square miles, 200 are land and 1.0 is
water, about 0.5 percent — the county has no large natural lake, and its main waterway is
Sweetwater Creek, which cuts through the southeastern part of the county toward the Chattahoochee
River. Sweetwater Creek State Park, a 2,549-acre tract along the creek, holds the county’s
largest block of protected forest and its best-known water feature, the creek’s shoal-filled
gorge below the old New Manchester mill ruins.

Cobb County borders Douglas to the northeast and Cobb County has its own page on this
site. Fulton County lies to the southeast, Carroll County to the west, and Paulding County to
the northwest — none of those three currently has a page here.

Demographics

Douglas County had a population of 144,237 at the 2020 census, and the county’s Population
Estimates Program figure puts it near 154,293 residents by 2025. Douglasville and Lithia Springs
are the two largest communities, together holding roughly a third of the county’s population.
Median household income runs $82,984 (2024 ACS, via Data USA), well above Georgia’s statewide
figure of $74,632 (2023 ACS). Population density in 2020 worked out to roughly 721 people per
square mile of land, among the denser counties in Georgia outside the immediate Atlanta core,
reflecting the county’s position on Interstate 20 just west of the city.

Economy & Local Life

Health care and social assistance is the county’s largest employment sector, about 8,552
workers, followed closely by retail trade at 8,192 and transportation and warehousing at 7,089,
the last reflecting the county’s Interstate 20 logistics corridor. Home Chef and the American Red
Cross both run large operations in Douglasville, alongside Walmart’s distribution and retail
presence. Douglasville’s historic downtown has become a regular film and television location,
hosting productions including Netflix’s Stranger Things, and the wider county has stood in for
settings in Zombieland and The Walking Dead. Sweetwater Creek State Park draws hikers, anglers
and paddlers to its reservoir and mill-ruin trails year-round.

History

Georgia’s General Assembly created Douglas County by an Act of the Legislature on 1 October
1870, carving it from parts of Campbell and Carroll counties. It was named for Stephen A.
Douglas, the Illinois senator and 1860 presidential candidate known as the “Little Giant.”
Douglasville was founded in 1874 as the Georgia Pacific Railway pushed through the area and was
incorporated as the county seat in 1875.

The county’s defining Civil War episode predates its own creation. The New Manchester
Manufacturing Company mill on Sweetwater Creek, built starting in 1846 and running by December
1849, employed several hundred women and children spinning cotton into yarn and cloth. On 9 July
1864, acting on orders from Union General William Tecumseh Sherman, Major Thompkins burned the
mill and the town’s general store. Roughly 600 mill workers were arrested, charged with treason,
held briefly in Marietta, then put on trains north to Louisville and Indiana as refugees; many
died of exposure and hunger before finding work again in 1865. The ruins now sit inside Sweetwater
Creek State Park, established in 1972.

Getting There

Interstate 20 crosses the county east–west through Douglasville. US Routes 78 and 278 run
through the county, along with Georgia State Routes 5, 6, 8, 61, 70, 92, 154, 166 and 274.

• Atlanta — about 20 miles east
• Marietta — about 20 miles northeast
• Carrollton — about 20 miles west
• Newnan — about 25 miles south

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, roughly 30 miles southeast of Douglasville,
is the nearest major commercial airport. Pinewood Airport, 5.7 miles northwest of downtown
Douglasville, handles general aviation and film-production charters. Amtrak’s Crescent stops in
Atlanta, about 26 miles east, the nearest passenger rail service to the county.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Douglas County located?
It sits in north-central Georgia on the western edge of Metro Atlanta, about 20 miles west of
Atlanta, bordered by Cobb, Fulton, Carroll and Paulding counties.

What is the population of Douglas County?
144,237 at the 2020 census, with an estimate near 154,293 by 2025.

How big is Douglas County?
201 square miles (520 km2), of which 200 square miles are land.

What is the county seat of Douglas County?
Douglasville, incorporated in 1875, is the county seat and largest city.

How many towns and cities are in Douglas County?
Three incorporated cities — Douglasville, Villa Rica (partly) and Austell (partly) —
plus two census-designated places, Lithia Springs and Fairplay, and seven unincorporated
communities: Winston, Chapel Hill, Beulah, Bill Arp, Hannah, McWhorter and White City.

What ZIP codes does Douglas County use?
30133, 30134, 30135 and 30154 for Douglasville; 30122 for Lithia Springs; 30180 for Villa Rica;
30106 for the Douglas County part of Austell; and 30187 for Winston.

What is Douglas County known for?
Sweetwater Creek State Park and the ruins of the New Manchester mill, burned by Union forces in
1864, plus its regular use as a film and TV location for productions including Stranger Things
and The Walking Dead.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Georgia.