Dublin, Georgia

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Dublin is a city in Laurens County, Georgia, United States. The population was 15,857 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Laurens County^GR6. Dublin is the main city in the Dublin Micropolitan area and the third largest in the state with a population of 56,434 only behind LaGrange and Statesboro. Dublin is not Considered a metropolitan area.

1 Geography
2 Education
3 Demographics
4 External links

[edit] Geography

Dublin is located at 32°32′15″N, 82°55′6″W (32.537463, -82.918358)^GR1. The town, named such because the Middle Georgia piedmont reminded Irish settlers of terrain in their native country, was founded on the Oconee river, which starts in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains in northern Georgia before combining with the Okmulgee River to form the Altamaha, a river which then proceeds to its mouth on the Atlantic.

Because of Dublin's location as a midpoint between Savannah and Atlanta, the town in recent decades became home to a small assortment of industrial distribution centers, which complemented various industries -- textiles, furniture, and paper, among others -- that had already established themselves there in the second half of the 20th century. Historically, however, Dublin's economy was based on the local cotton, corn, and soybean trades, which blossomed as the town's central location enabled it to thrive with the growth of the railroad.

Originally, Dublin and the surrounding area was home to Native Americans of the Muskogee people, also known as Creeks. Like their brethren throughout much of the southeast, most of the Muskogee fled westward with the arrival of European settlers, many of them organizing themselves into armed resistance units, which fought government forces and white militias to protect their native territory well into the early 1800s. Ultimately, most of the Muskogee diaspora settled in what is now Oklahoma.

Despite the Irish ancestry of Dublin's first non-native settlers, the town, like most of the rest of Middle Georgia, by the late 1800s had evolved into a hodgepodge of mixed ethnicities: While area whites descended from Scotch, English and other western European immigrants, the town's considerable African-American population descended from freed slaves, most of whose roots lay in Angola and elsewhere in west Africa. By the end of the 20th century, the town had also become home to a growing population of recent immigrants, many of them professionals from India, Korea, and Latin America. As labor migrations from Mexico and Central America shifted from the southwest U.S. to much of the southeast, many immigrants from those regions also moved to Dublin in the first decade of the 21st century.

An obscure bit of Dublin trivia: The town, along with a reference to the Oconee river, is mentioned in the opening passages of James Joyce's "Finnegan's Wake." Dublin, according to a historical marker [1] at the town's main Oconee bridge, was also one of the last encampments at which Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his family stayed before being captured by Union forces in May 1865. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 34.4 km² (13.3 mi²). 34.2 km² (13.2 mi²) of it is land and 0.2 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (0.45%) is water.

[edit] Education

High Schools
Dublin (9-12)
East Laurens (9-12)
Trinity Christian (9-12)
West Laurens (9-12)

Middle
Dublin (6-8)
East Laurens (6-8)
Trinity Christian (6-8)
West Laurens (6-8)

Elementary
Hillcrest(pre k)
Susie Dasher (k-1)
Saxon (2-3)
Moore Street (4-5)
East Laurens Primary (Pre k-2)
East Laurens Elementary (3-5)
Southwest Laurens (Pre k-5)
Northwest Laurens (Pre k-5)
Trinity Christian Lower school (pre k-5)

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 15,857 people, 6,130 households, and 4,027 families residing in the city. The population density was 463.5/km² (1,200.7/mi²). There were 6,977 housing units at an average density of 203.9/km² (528.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 45.54% White, 51.42% African American, 0.20% Native American, 1.75% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.29% from other races, and 0.76% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.14% of the population.

There were 6,130 households out of which 31.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.2% were married couples living together, 23.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.3% were non-families. 31.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 3.05.

In the city the population was spread out with 26.7% under the age of 18, 9.0% from 18 to 24, 24.8% from 25 to 44, 22.2% from 45 to 64, and 17.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 85.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 80.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $28,532, and the median income for a family was $36,463. Males had a median income of $30,830 versus $21,553 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,560. About 22.5% of families and 27.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 41.1% of those under age 18 and 21.2% of those age 65 or over.