Ray City, Georgia
Seal of Georgia
Ray City · Berrien County, Georgia
Population 906 (est. 2026: ~700)
Source: Census ACS 2023 · ACS 2023 + -5.96% annual growth projection

Ray City, Georgia

Berrien County, Georgia · Population 956

Ray City sits in the flat pine country of south-central Georgia, about 15 miles north of Valdosta and tucked inside Berrien County along U.S. 129. It is a small, working agricultural town — the kind of place where the median age is 24.8 and nearly a third of every household includes children. The surrounding landscape is tobacco country transitioning to timber and row crops, and the rhythms of the town follow that rural economy. Nashville, the Berrien County seat, is just a few miles away and handles most of the county-level services Ray City residents rely on.

People & Demographics

Ray City's ACS 2022 population count is 1,043, with a median age of 24.8 — strikingly young. Georgia's statewide median age hovers around 37, so Ray City skews decisively toward younger families. Of the 1,043 residents, 649 identify as white, 270 as Black, and 164 as Hispanic or Latino. There are no Asian-identified residents in the data.

The 327 households average 3.19 people — well above the national average of roughly 2.5 — which tracks with 368 children under 18 living in the community. Family households make up 230 of the 327 total, meaning roughly 70 percent of households are family units. This is a town full of young parents and kids.

Economy & Employment

The labor force numbers 430 people, with 41 unemployed — an unemployment rate of about 9.5 percent, which runs higher than Georgia's statewide figure. Median household income is $46,875, and per capita income is $19,342. Both figures trail state medians considerably; Georgia's median household income is roughly $61,000.

Poverty is a real presence here. Of the population for whom poverty status was determined, 195 fall below the poverty line — roughly 19 percent of residents. That is a meaningful share of the community and shapes what local institutions, schools, and services contend with daily.

Housing

Ray City has 355 total housing units, with 327 occupied and 28 vacant — a vacancy rate of about 7.9 percent. The owner-renter split is almost exactly even: 163 owner-occupied units against 164 renter-occupied. That near-perfect split is unusual and suggests a housing stock that serves both long-term residents and a more transient population.

Median home value is $116,400, which makes homeownership accessible by almost any Georgia standard — the statewide median value is roughly $230,000. Median gross rent, however, is $947 per month, which is not dramatically lower than larger Georgia cities and represents a significant share of income at the local per capita earnings level.

Schools

Ray City students attend Berrien County Schools. The full pipeline runs through four campuses:

All of these campuses serve the entire county, not Ray City alone. Students from Ray City and Nashville and surrounding communities share the same schools, making Berrien County Schools the central institutional anchor for the region.

Of Ray City's adult population 25 and older (513 people), 187 hold a high school diploma as their highest credential, 48 hold a bachelor's degree, and 30 hold a master's degree. No doctorates were recorded in the data.

Getting Around

Ray City is entirely car-dependent. Of 375 workers, 359 drove alone to work. No carpooling, no public transit, and no walking commutes appear in the data. Thirteen people worked from home. The aggregate travel time for all workers is 8,030 minutes, working out to an average one-way commute of about 21.4 minutes — consistent with workers traveling to Nashville, Valdosta, or other nearby employment centers.

Healthcare

The nearest hospital is SGMC Berrien Campus, part of the South Georgia Medical Center system, located in Nashville. For provider-level searches, the CMS NPI Registry includes licensed providers in Ray City: Search NPI Registry for Ray City, GA.

Library

The Carrie Dorsey Perry Memorial Library serves Ray City residents and is located 0.9 miles from town. Phone: (229) 686-2782. It is part of the regional library system serving Berrien County.

Natural Hazards

Berrien County has been struck repeatedly and is not a quiet corner of Georgia when it comes to weather. FEMA has issued disaster or emergency declarations for the county going back to at least 2004:

Fifteen federal declarations in twenty years is a serious track record. South Georgia sits in a corridor that catches tropical systems weakening off the Gulf and Atlantic, and Berrien County absorbs the effects with regularity. Flooding and wind damage are not occasional events here — they are recurring conditions residents plan around.

Government & Municipal Code

Ray City's municipal code is published through Municode and available at: https://library.municode.com/ga/ray-city-city-georgia

Ray City does not have a locally adopted building code on file with the publisher.

Weather

Current forecasts and alerts for Ray City's coordinates (31.2186°N, 83.2446°W):

The nearest official weather observation station is Nashville 4N, located 3.2 miles away.

References

The law belongs to the people. Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 590 U.S. (2020)