Reliable data and information is the foundation of sound decision-making. With that in mind, the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) provides community-specific demographic and economic reports as a tool for use in local comprehensive planning as required by Georgia’s Minimum Standards and Procedures for Local Comprehensive Planning upon request from local governments. While it is not necessary to incorporate all of these reports into the local comprehensive plan, itself, DCA recommends communities examine this kind of demographic and economic data when creating the “Needs and Opportunities” element of their local comprehensive plan. The reports provided by DCA include information from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and are formatted by Esri Community Analyst in a way that is easy to read.

The links below are examples of what is included in the standard reports produced by DCA (using Ben Hill County as a model). The format of the reports is the same for cities. Additional information may be available on a case-by-case basis, depending upon the specific need identified by the requesting community and the availability of data. It is also possible to create the same reports for a variety planning purposes using other geographic boundaries (e.g., watersheds or legislative districts).

• Executive Summary
  2010 Census Profile
  ACS Population Summary
  Demographic and Income Comparison Profile
  ACS Housing Summary
  Housing Profile
  Business Profile
  
  
  Requesting Data

When the local comprehensive planning process is being managed by a community’s Regional Commission (RC), the Department requests that RC use its own GIS resources to create the necessary data reports via its Esri Enterprise License agreement. Cities and counties planning without the assistance of their RCs (and RCs requiring special assistance) may request the community data reports from DCA by emailing:

Last updated June 2015