Gwinnett County ( ) is located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is a core county of Metro Atlanta, being located about northeast of Atlanta city limits. In 2020, the population was 957,062, making it the second-most populous county in Georgia (after Fulton County). Its county seat is Lawrenceville. The county is named for Button Gwinnett, one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence.
Gwinnett County is the most diverse county in Georgia, with African American & Hispanic communities each representing over 20% of the county's residents, and Asian Americans at over 13%. As of the 2020 Census, no racial demographic constitutes more than a third of the county's population.
History In 1813, Fort Daniel was created during the War of 1812 in territory that would become Gwinnett County. The county was created in 1818 by an act of the Georgia General Assembly, Gwinnett County was formed from parts of Jackson County (formerly part of Franklin County) and from lands gained through the cession of Creek Indian lands. Named for Button Gwinnett, one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence, the first county election was held at the home of Elisha Winn, and the first Superior Court was held in his barn. The county seat was later placed at Lawrenceville.
In 1831, a group of white men were tried and found guilty in Lawrenceville for violating Georgia law by living in the Cherokee Nation without a valid passport from the Governor. Two of the men appealed to the US Supreme Court in Worcester v. Georgia, which resulted in a ruling stating that only the federal government had jurisdiction over native lands, a decision which still stands.
In 1861, all three of Gwinnett County's representatives at the Georgia Constitutional Convention (1861) in Milledgeville voted against secession. Towards the end of the war, Union troops foraged in Gwinnett County as part of the Atlanta campaign. The Freedmen's Bureau was active in Gwinnett County during Reconstruction. In 1871, the courthouse in Lawrenceville was burned by the Ku Klux Klan in an attempt to avoid prosecution for their crimes, which included the shooting of a Black election manager in Norcross.
Early in the county's history, gold mining was a minor industry. The Gwinnett Manufacturing Company, a cotton textile factory, operated in Lawrenceville in the 1850s through 1865, when it burned. The Bona Allen Company in Buford, Georgia produced saddles, harnesses and other leather goods from 1873 to 1981.
The northeastern part of Gwinnett County was removed in 1914 to form a part of the new Barrow County.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (1.5%) is water. The county is located in the upper Piedmont region of the state.
It is located along the Eastern Continental Divide. A portion of the county to the northwest is a part of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area chain.
Allocation of water from the regional reservoir, Lake Lanier, at the extreme north of the county, has been subject to the Tri-state water dispute.
The southern and central portions of Gwinnett County are located in the Upper Ocmulgee River sub-basin of the Altamaha River basin. Most of the county's northern edge, from south of Peachtree Corners to north of Buford, is located in the Upper Chattahoochee River sub-basin of the ACF River Basin (Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin). The county's eastern edge, north and south of Dacula, is located in the Upper Oconee River sub-basin of the same Altamaha River basin.
Adjacent counties
Forsyth County – north Hall County – northeast Jackson County – northeast Barrow County – east Walton County – southeast Rockdale County – south DeKalb County – southwest Fulton County – west
Communities
Cities
Auburn (partly in Barrow County) Berkeley Lake Buford (partly in Hall County) Dacula Duluth Grayson Lawrenceville (county seat) Lilburn Loganville (partly in Walton County) Mulberry Norcross Peachtree Corners Snellville Sugar Hill Suwanee
Towns Braselton (partly in Jackson County, Hall County, and Barrow County) Rest Haven (partly in Hall County)
Census-designated places Mountain Park
Unincorporated communities Allendale Centerville Five Forks Harbins Hog Mountain Lucky Shoals Mechanicsville Mountain Park Rockbridge Rosebud
Demographics
Gwinnett County is often cited as one of the counties in the US that has demographically changed the most rapidly. As recently as 1990, over 90% of Gwinnett County's population was white. By 2007, the county was projected to be majority-minority.
Racial and ethnic composition +Gwinnett County, Georgia – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 1980Pop 1990Pop 2000Pop 2010 Pop 2020% 1980% 1990% 2000% 2010% 2020White alone (NH)160,050315,548394,164354,316310,58395.89%89.41%66.98%44.00%32.45%Black or African American alone (NH)4,07017,97176,837184,122257,1242.44%5.09%13.06%22.86%26.87%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)2006811,0571,5351,5320.12%0.19%0.18%0.19%0.16%Asian alone (NH)94210,11542,18084,763126,5260.56%2.87%7.17%10.53%13.22%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)x included in the Asian category in the 1980 Censusx included in the Asian category in the 1990 Census211343387xx0.04%0.04%0.04%Other race alone (NH)2151251,0992,4896,4890.13%0.04%0.19%0.31%0.68%Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)x not an option in the 1980 Censusx not an option in the 1990 Census8,76315,71833,961xx1.49%1.95%3.55%Hispanic or Latino (any race)1,4268,47064,137162,035220,4600.85%2.40%10.90%20.12%23.04%Total166,903352,910588,448805,321957,062 100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, there were 957,062 people, 316,708 households, and 230,960 families residing in the county.
The median age was 36.0 years. 25.9% of residents were under the age of 18 and 11.0% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 94.4 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 91.3 males age 18 and over. 99.5% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.5% lived in rural areas.
The racial makeup of the county was 35.5% White, 27.4% Black or African American, 0.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 13.3% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 12.1% from some other race, and 10.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 23.0% of the population.
Of the 316,708 households, 40.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them and 26.1% had a female householder with no spouse or partner present. About 19.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 330,569 housing units, of which 4.2% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 65.3% were owner-occupied and 34.7% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.4% and the rental vacancy rate was 6.0%.
2010 census
In 2010, the median income for a household in the county was $63,219 and the median income for a family was $70,767. Males had a median income of $48,671 versus $39,540 for females. The per capita income for the county was $26,901. About 8.7% of families and 11.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.1% of those under age 18 and 8.1% of those age 65 or over.
Economy
AGCO is headquartered in Duluth. American Megatrends is headquartered in unincorporated Gwinnett County near Norcross."Contact Us ." American Megatrends. Retrieved on May 6, 2009. ASHRAE's world headquarters is in Peachtree Corners. Comcast Corporation, the American global telecommunications conglomerate and owner of Xfinity and NBCUniversal, has its Southeast Headquarters in Peachtree Corners. Canon has its southeast region headquarters in Norcross. Fortune 500 companies CarMax and Mass Mutual as well as Honeywell, Sprint Corporation, Siemens Industry Automation, Fleetcor, ACI Worldwide, and CMD Group are among the businesses in Peachtree Corners. The Harlem Globetrotters are headquartered in Peachtree Corners. Primerica is headquartered in unincorporated Gwinnett County, near Duluth."Contact Us ." Primerica. Retrieved on January 5, 2010. United States Tennis Association (USTA)‘s headquarters for the Southern Section is in Peachtree Corners. Vantiva's United States office is in Norcross. Waffle House is headquartered in unincorporated Gwinnett County,"Contact Us ." Waffle House.that doesent make sense Retrieved on May 19, 2009. near Norcross.Woods, Mark. "If this is what it gets to, it's bad ." The Florida Times-Union. May 3, 2009. Retrieved on May 19, 2009. Yerkes National Primate Research Center, the CDC's primate research center located on the campus of Emory University in Atlanta, maintains its high security Yerkes Field Station, which houses most of its primates, near Lawrenceville.
Government and politics
Under Georgia's "home rule" provision, county governments have free rein to legislate on all matters within the county, provided that such legislation does not conflict with state or federal law, or state or federal Constitutions.
Gwinnett County, Georgia is governed by a five-member Board of Commissioners, which exercises both legislative and executive authority within the county. The Chair of the Board is elected county-wide and serves full-time. The four other commissioners are elected from single-member districts and serve part-time positions. The board hires a county administrator who oversees daily operations of the county's twelve executive departments. Gwinnett County has a police department that operates under the authority of the Board of Commissioners. Some of the local Gwinnett city budgets have recently come under increasing scrutiny of the General Funds allocated to police services. Cities such as Duluth have allocated as much as forty percent of their city budgets, reaching some of the highest levels in the nation. Solutions to high spending being discussed include additional “investment in mental health, housing, youth development and living wages would stabilize communities and prove more effective than policing.”
In addition to the Board of Commissioners, county residents also elect persons to the following positions: Sheriff, District Attorney, Probate Court Judge, Clerk of State/Superior Court, Tax Commissioner, State Court Solicitor, Chief Magistrate Judge (who appoints other Magistrate Court judges), Chief Superior Court Judge and Superior Court Judges, and Chief State Court Judge and State Court Judges.
Gwinnett County has the largest public school system in the state of Georgia. Members of the Board of Education are elected from special election districts in the county.
For most of the time from 1964 to 2012, the county was a Republican stronghold in presidential elections. The only Democrat to carry the county in this period was former Georgia governor Jimmy Carter in 1976, who carried Gwinnett County during his sweep of every county in the state. However, the Republican edge narrowed, and then eventually was eliminated, in the 2010s as the county, as well as the rest of the Atlanta metro area, became larger and more diverse. In 2016, Hillary Clinton became the first Democrat to win Gwinnett County in 40 years and the first non-Georgian Democrat to do so since John F. Kennedy in 1960, doing so by 5.9 points. This was due to changing demographics with white college-educated voters, as well as a white flight out of the county. In 2018, Stacey Abrams became the first Democrat to win Gwinnett County in a gubernatorial election since 1986 when Joe Frank Harris swept every county statewide. The Democratic trend became even more apparent in 2020, when Joe Biden won 58.4% of the vote, the best showing for a non-Georgian Democrat since Kennedy's 73.5%.