Menlo, Georgia
Seal of Georgia
Menlo · Chattooga County, Georgia
Population 605 (est. 2026: ~700)
Source: Census ACS 2023 · ACS 2023 + 2.48% annual growth projection

Menlo, Georgia

Chattooga County, Georgia · Population 480

Menlo sits in the northwestern corner of Georgia, tucked into the ridge-and-valley terrain of Chattooga County near the Alabama state line. It is a small, tight-knit community — fewer than 500 people — where the surrounding landscape does more talking than the town itself. The nearest significant city is Rome, Georgia, roughly 30 miles to the southeast. Chattanooga, Tennessee lies about 40 miles to the north. Menlo is not a suburb of either; it functions as its own quiet anchor point in a rural county that has seen decades of population stability rather than growth.

People & Demographics

Menlo's population of 469 (ACS 2022) skews slightly young, with a median age of 35.8. The town is predominantly white (461 residents), with small Black (3) and effectively no Asian or Hispanic populations recorded. That demographic profile is consistent with Chattooga County broadly, which is itself one of the more rural and ethnically homogeneous counties in northwest Georgia.

The 229 households average 2.05 people — a small household size that reflects the predominance of non-family and single-person arrangements. Only 98 of those 229 households are classified as family households. Children under 18 number 80, meaning roughly 17% of the population is school-aged.

Economy & Employment

Median household income in Menlo is $33,589, and per capita income sits at $26,553. Both figures trail Georgia state medians substantially — Georgia's median household income runs closer to $65,000, making Menlo's figure roughly half the state benchmark. Of the 260 residents counted in the labor force, 12 were unemployed at the time of the survey, an unemployment rate of approximately 4.6%.

Poverty touches 33 residents by Census count, a meaningful share of a population this small. The economic picture here is one of working-class rural Georgia — steady but constrained, with limited local employment and likely significant out-commuting to nearby towns and counties.

Housing

Housing in Menlo is genuinely affordable by any standard. The median home value is $75,000 — well below Georgia's statewide median, which exceeds $220,000. Median gross rent runs $550 per month.

Of 249 total housing units, 229 are occupied and 20 sit vacant — an 8% vacancy rate that is relatively healthy for a community this size. The renter-to-owner split leans toward renting: 122 renter-occupied units versus 107 owner-occupied units. That means a slight majority of Menlo's households rent, which is somewhat unusual for a rural Georgia town and may reflect the income constraints visible in the economics data.

Schools

Menlo is served by Menlo Elementary School, which covers grades pre-K through 8 and enrolls 330 students — a notably high enrollment relative to the town's total population of 480, suggesting the school draws from the surrounding rural area beyond city limits. For high school, students move on to Chattooga County's secondary schools in Summerville, the county seat about 10 miles away.

Getting Around

Menlo is car-dependent with no meaningful public transit — zero workers reported using public transit in the commute data. Of 222 total workers, 190 drive alone and 27 carpool. Five walk to work. The aggregate travel time logged is 6,555 minutes across those workers, averaging roughly 29.5 minutes per commute one-way. That's consistent with workers driving to employment centers in Summerville, Rome, or into Alabama. No remote work was recorded in the survey data.

Healthcare

No hospitals or major clinical facilities operate within Menlo itself. Residents are served by regional facilities in Summerville and Rome, with Floyd Medical Center in Rome being the primary full-service hospital for much of Chattooga County. For a searchable list of licensed healthcare providers registered to Menlo, the CMS NPI Registry maintains current records.

Library

The nearest public library is the Chattooga Public Library, located 8.3 miles from Menlo. It can be reached by phone at (706) 857-2553 and serves as the county's primary public library resource for Menlo residents.

Parks & Recreation

The northwest Georgia corner puts Menlo within reach of several significant federal lands. Little River Canyon National Preserve is the closest NPS unit, just across the Alabama line — the Jacksonville State University Little River Canyon Center sits 10.5 miles away and functions as the visitor and interpretive hub for the preserve. The canyon itself is one of the deepest in the eastern United States, known for waterfalls, rim trails, and paddling.

Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park, the country's oldest and largest military park, is roughly 34 miles north, with its main battlefield visitor center accessible from Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. Russell Cave National Monument in Alabama rounds out the nearby NPS presence, preserving one of the most complete archaeological records in the Southeast.

Lookout Mountain Battlefield Visitor Center lies 37.6 miles away, accessible as part of the Chickamauga & Chattanooga complex.

Natural Hazards

Chattooga County has a long and documented federal disaster history. FEMA declarations dating to 1973 cover a wide range of hazard types — tornadoes, flooding, severe winter storms, drought, and hurricane remnants.

Severe winter storms are a recurring threat, with declarations in 1993, 2000, 2014, and as recently as January 2026. Hurricane remnants have reached the county more than once: Hurricane Opal (1995), Hurricane Irma (2017), and Hurricane Helene (2024) all generated federal emergency or disaster declarations. The county also received a Hurricane Katrina evacuation designation in 2005, reflecting its role as a receiving area for displaced Gulf Coast residents. Flooding and storm events in 1973, 1990, and 2009 round out a history that makes clear this is a county that gets hit with regularity across multiple hazard categories.

Government & Municipal Code

Menlo operates as an incorporated city under Georgia law. The municipal code is published through Municode and available at library.municode.com/ga/menlo-city-georgia. No local building code is currently on file for the city.

Weather

Current National Weather Service forecasts for Menlo are available at the NWS MapClick forecast page. Active weather alerts can be tracked at alerts.weather.gov. The closest weather observation station is Mentone 6.9 SSE, located approximately 2.7 miles from town in neighboring Alabama.

References

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