ABOUT | MILLER COUNTY

Miller County, the state's 117th county, was created by the state legislature in 1856 out of portions of Early and Baker counties and 283 square miles. The county was named for attorney Andrew Miller, who served in the state senate and later became president of the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. 

Colquitt was designated as the county seat in the same year as the county's founding. The city was named after Walter T. Colquitt, a clergyman, attorney, and judge, who served in the U.S. Senate from 1843 to 1848. The county's first courthouse, built in Colquitt, was replaced once and then burned twice before the current structure was completed in 1977. While Colquitt remains the only Miller County Courthouse incorporated city in Miller County, there are twenty other small communities. 

At the turn of the twenty-first century, cotton, peanuts, and corn for grain were the top crops in Miller County, which today ranks fourth in total peanut production in Georgia. 

Miller County is home to Georgia's official folklife play, Swamp Gravy. The ever-changing play is regularly scheduled at the historic Cotton Hall in Colquitt, which also houses the Museum of Southern Cultures. Storytelling circles are also popular because of the play. The Swamp Gravy Institute, an arts service organization formed as an outgrowth of the play, is a consulting and training unit of the Colquitt-Miller Arts Council. A storytelling festival is held in Colquitt in August, and the May-Haw Festival, honoring the tart south Georgia fruit, is held in April at Spring Creek Park, which also contains ecologically fragile wetlands. 

The ongoing Millennium Murals Project, funded by public and private sources, has become a community beautification project. Using walls on area schools and business establishments, project designers pair artists with local middle and high school students, teachers, and community members. The murals depict stories told by locals about community happenings. 

As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 6,125 people, 2,426 households, and 1,674 families living in the county. The population density was 21.7 inhabitants per square mile (8.4/km2). There were 2,791 housing units at an average density of 9.9 per square mile (3.8/km2). The racial makeup of the county was 69.6% white, 28.1% black or African American, 0.5% Asian, 0.2% American Indian, 0.4% from other races, and 1.2% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 1.5% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 14.2% were American, and 5.2% were Irish. Of the 2,426 households, 32.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.1% were married couples living together, 15.6% had a female householder with no husband present, 31.0% were non-families, and 27.3% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 3.00. The median age was 41.7 years.

The median income for a household in the county was $33,196 and the median income for a family was $40,685. Males had a median income of $31,985 versus $29,110 for females. The per capita income for the county was $19,895. About 18.9% of families and 18.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 22.3% of those under age 18 and 16.1% of those age 65 or over.