COVINGTON, Ga. — Newton County and all its cities have seen growth in this decade.
Population estimates released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau showed all six cities in Newton County have registered at least 3 percent growth since 2010.
The county as a whole has grown 8.12 percent since the 2010 census and now has an estimated population of 108,078.
Covington remains the largest city in the county by far, with an estimated population of 14,044. That’s 7 percent growth from 2010.
2017 Population Estimates
- Covington: 14,044 (+7.06% since 2010)
- Social Circle: 4,479 (+5.09%)
- Oxford: 2,234 (+4.69%)
- Porterdale: 1,481 (+3.64%)
- Newborn: 749 (+7.61%)
- Mansfield: 427 (+4.15%)
- Newton County: 108,078 (+8.12%)
- Georgia: 10,429,379 (+7.66%)
Newborn, though, has seen the largest rate of growth. The city on the eastern side of the county has grown 7.61 percent to 749.
Oxford grew 4.69 percent, to 2,234. Mansfield remains the smallest city in the county but grew 4.15 percent, to 427.
Porterdale grew by 3.64 percent, to 1,481.
Social Circle is divided between two counties with the vast majority of its land and people in south Walton County. The city had 5 percent growth over the past seven years, to an estimated population of 4,479.
Newton County’s growth outpaced the state. Georgia grew 7.66 percent since 2010 to an estimated population of just under 10.43 million.
Of surrounding counties, only Henry and Walton grew faster than Newton.
Henry is by far the largest neighboring county. It grew 10.73 percent in the past seven years and now has an estimated population of 225,813.
Walton County has grown 9.35 percent, to 91,600.
The South continues to see massive growth in population. Ten of the 15 fastest-growing large cities were across the South in 2016, with four of the top five in Texas.
Conroe, Texas, was the fastest-growing large city between 2015 and 2016 at 7.8 percent. That’s a growth rate more than 11 times the nation’s growth rate of 0.7 percent.
Four of the five fastest-growing cities were in Texas. Only fourth-ranked Greenville, South Carolina, was outside the Lone Star State.
“Overall, cities in the South continue to grow at a faster rate than any other U.S. region,” Amel Toukabri, a demographer in the Census Bureau’s population division, said.
The Census Bureau said about 76 percent of incorporated places in the U.S. had fewer than 5,000 people in 2015. Small towns in the South have grown by about 0.2 percent, on average, since 2015. Such towns typically are declining in population in the Northeast and Midwest.
