Appling County

	According to the Census, in Appling County, 76.8% of the residents were white and 19.6% were black. Hispanics, who can be identified as either white or black in the Census data, made up 4.5% of the county's population. Statewide, 65.1% of residents were white, 28.7% were black and 5.3% were Hispanic. In Appling County, 27.1% of the county's residents were age 18 or younger, while 11.8% were age 65 or older. Statewide, 26.5% were age 18 or younger and 9.6% were age 65 or older. The Census reports 7.2% of Appling County's households were headed by females with children under 18 years of age, compared with 9.0% statewide. Total households with children under 18 comprised 34.5% of all households in the county and 35.0% of those in the state.
Between 1996 and 2000, Appling County school system reported an average high school dropout rate of 8.7%, for students in grades 9 to 12. Statewide, this rate is 6.8% for the same period of time. Appling County spent an average of $5,655 per student for public education each year between 1996 and 2000. This expenditure was greater than the state wide average of $5,285 Based on the 2000 graduating class for Appling County school system, 37.0% of the students were eligible for the HOPE Scholarship Program. The scholarship is available to eligible students to attend a post-secondary school in Georgia. Statewide, 57.9% of the graduating students were eligible for the HOPE scholarship. Between 1995 and 1998, the infant mortality rate (infant deaths per 1,000 live births) was 14.2 for the county. The statewide rate was 9.2 during the same period. In 2000, the number of physicians in the county per 1,000 population was 1.0, compared with the 1.9 state average. Appling County had 2.3 hospital beds per 1,000 population in 2000, which was less than the statewide average of 3.1 beds per 1,000 population. The 2000 index crime rate (crimes per 1,000) for Appling County was 1.4. Statewide, in 2000, the rate was 3.4. Of the total index crimes reported, 5.8% were violent crimes, while 94.2% were property crimes. In 2000, 75.5% of the adult population in the county was registered to vote. Of those registered voters, 69.1% voted in the 2000 general election. Statewide, in 2000, 64.1% of eligible Georgians were registered to vote. Of those registered, 69.6% voted in the general election that year.
Community Population Growth (%) 1980 1990 2000 1980-1990 1990-2000 Appling County 15,565 15,744 17,419 1.2% 10.6% Graham 0 293 312 0.0% 6.5% Surrency 368 253 237 -31.3% -6.3% Baxley 3,586 3,862 4,150 7.7% 7.5%