Baker County, Georgia

Baker County is a county in Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,876. The county seat and only city is Newton. The county was created December 12, 1825, from the eastern portion of Early County by an act of the Georgia General Assembly and is named for Colonel John Baker, a hero of the American Revolutionary War.

Baker County is included in the Albany, GA metropolitan statistical area.

The Baker County Courthouse (Georgia) is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Three other properties in Newton are also listed on the register: Notchaway Baptist Church and Cemetery, Pine Bloom Plantation, and Tarver Plantation.

Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 349 sqmi, of which 342 sqmi is land and 7.2 sqmi (2.1%) is water.

The eastern half of Baker County is located in the Lower Flint River sub-basin of the ACF River Basin (Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin). The western half of the county is located in the Ichawaynochaway Creek sub-basin of the same ACF River Basin.

Major highways

 * [[Image:Georgia 37.svg|20px]] State Route 37
 * [[Image:Georgia 91.svg|20px]] State Route 91
 * [[Image:Georgia 200.svg|25px]] State Route 200
 * [[Image:Georgia 216.svg|25px]] State Route 216
 * [[Image:Georgia 253.svg|25px]] State Route 253

Adjacent counties

 * Dougherty County, Georgia - northeast
 * Mitchell County, Georgia - east
 * Decatur County, Georgia - southwest
 * Early County, Georgia - west
 * Miller County, Georgia - west
 * Calhoun County, Georgia - northwest

City

 * Newton

Unincorporated communities

 * Anna
 * Bethany
 * Crestview
 * Elmodel
 * Hardup
 * Milford
 * Patmos

Ghost towns

 * Cheevertown
 * Dewsville

Demographics
As of the 2020 United States Census, there were 2,876 people, 1,425 households, and 788 families residing in the county.

Education
Baker County School System operates public schools.

Politics
Like most Deep South counties, Baker County is historically Democratic. Starting in 1964, the county began to see a realignment, with Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon carrying it in 1964 and 1972, and American Independent candidate George Wallace winning the county in 1968 as a third-party candidate. In 1956, Adlai Stevenson received over 96 percent of the county's vote. The county voted Democratic consistently from 1976 until 2012, but by closer margins than in 1956, and the county shifted more to the right throughout the early 2000s. In 2008 Barack Obama won with just 50.1 percent to John McCain's 49.1 percent, while Donald Trump won the county by almost ten percent in 2016, despite declining on Mitt Romney’s performance statewide. Brian Kemp repeated this feat by double digits in the 2018 gubernatorial race, and in 2020, Trump won Baker County by nearly sixteen percentage points.