Athens-Clarke County unified government, GA population, income and ZIP codes

Athens-Clarke County unified government (balance) is a mid-size city in Georgia, with 126,987 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #6 of 675 ranked by population — larger than 99% of them. The median age here is 29.2 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. At this size the Census also publishes one-year estimates; the five-year values used here are steadier and let you compare against smaller neighbours on the same basis.

Households in Athens-Clarke County unified government (balance) earn a median of $51,655 a year, 34.2% below the national figure of $78,538 and 10% below the $57,300 median for the 378 Georgia cities we cover. This figure covers the household, not the worker: two people on ordinary wages at one address outrank a single professional in the same table. Poverty reaches 26.3% of residents here, well above the 12.4% national rate, which is the single clearest signal in this dataset that median income here is carried by a narrow band of households.

The typical owner-occupied home in Athens-Clarke County unified government (balance) is valued at $271,800, 10.4% below the national figure and 42% above the $191,600 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,162 a month, 17.4% below the national figure, or roughly $13,944 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 27% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 5.3×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 40.5% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, a renter-majority market, so rent figures matter more here than the home-value line. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

A median age of 29.2 means a large student or early-career population; income medians in places like this understate household resources, since many residents are supported from outside the address.

No figure on this page is estimated by us; each one comes straight from the published ACS tables for this area. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.