Arabi, Georgia
Seal of Georgia
Arabi · Crisp County, Georgia
Population 741 (est. 2026: ~300)
Source: Census ACS 2023 · ACS 2023 + -25.78% annual growth projection

Arabi, Georgia

Crisp County, Georgia · Population 447

Arabi sits in the flat agricultural heartland of south-central Georgia, about eight miles north of Cordele along U.S. Highway 41. It is one of Crisp County's smaller incorporated communities — a quiet, tight-knit town where the median age skews older, the housing stock is deeply affordable, and most residents commute out to work. The surrounding landscape is defined by row-crop fields, pine stands, and the broad horizon that characterizes the Georgia Coastal Plain. Cordele, the county seat, functions as the practical hub for shopping, healthcare, and services that Arabi itself does not provide at scale.

People & Demographics

The Census ACS 2022 count puts Arabi's population at 663, with 222 occupied households and an average household size of 2.99. The median age is 49.2 — notably higher than the Georgia statewide median, signaling an older, more settled community with relatively few young adults. Of 263 total housing units, 41 sit vacant.

Racially, the population is predominantly white (534), with 58 Black residents, 28 Asian residents, and 101 Hispanic or Latino residents. There are 101 children under 18 living in the town, spread across 181 family households.

Economy & Employment

The median household income in Arabi is $77,579 — a figure that sits well above what most small south Georgia towns report and above the Crisp County median, though per capita income of $22,067 reflects the uneven distribution that comes with multi-person households. Of 334 residents in the labor force, 26 are unemployed. With 245 workers total, the town is not a major employment center itself; most residents drive to Cordele or beyond for work.

Poverty touches 106 residents — a meaningful share of a small population, and consistent with the broader economic pressures Crisp County faces. The county's economy has historically centered on agriculture, food processing, and healthcare, with Cordele serving as a regional commercial anchor.

Housing

Arabi's housing market is defined by low purchase prices and relatively modest rents. The median home value is $45,300 — a figure that reflects both the age of the housing stock and the rural south Georgia market. Median rent runs $850 per month.

Of 222 occupied units, 173 are owner-occupied and 49 are renter-occupied — a strong ownership rate of roughly 78 percent. With 41 vacant units out of 263 total, the vacancy rate sits around 15.6 percent, which is elevated but not unusual for small rural towns experiencing slow population change.

Schools

All public school students in Arabi attend Crisp County schools, which operate as a unified county system. There are no separate municipal schools.

The system is one of the larger county-level operations in this part of the state, given that nearly all of Crisp County's roughly 20,000 residents feed into the same school pipeline.

Getting Around

Arabi is a car-dependent community. Of 245 workers, 190 drive alone to work and 6 carpool. Zero residents commute by public transit. Six walk to work, and 24 work from home. Aggregate travel time across all workers totals 6,095 minutes, putting the average one-way commute at roughly 25 minutes — consistent with driving to Cordele or nearby employment centers.

There is no local transit service. A personal vehicle is essential for daily life.

Healthcare

Crisp Regional Hospital in Cordele is the primary acute care facility serving Arabi residents. It is the closest full-service hospital to the town. For a broader search of individual healthcare providers registered in Arabi, the CMS NPI Registry lists licensed practitioners by location.

Library

The Cordele-Crisp Carnegie Library is the nearest public library, located 3.0 miles from Arabi. It can be reached at (229) 276-1300. The Carnegie designation reflects the building's historical roots — these libraries, funded through Andrew Carnegie's philanthropy in the early 20th century, remain community anchors across rural Georgia.

Parks & Recreation

Two National Park Service sites are within reasonable driving distance of Arabi:

Both sites draw visitors from across the region and represent the historical depth of southwest Georgia's landscape.

Natural Hazards

Crisp County has a substantial FEMA disaster declaration history — 15 declarations since 1998, covering an unusually wide range of event types for an inland county.

Hurricanes and tropical systems have made repeated impacts: Hurricane Irma (2017), Hurricane Michael (2018), Hurricane Debby (2024), and Hurricane Helene (2024) all generated both emergency management and major disaster declarations for the county. Helene in September 2024 produced two separate federal declarations within days of each other.

Severe storms, tornadoes, and straight-line winds struck in January 2017 and again were declared a disaster in January 2023. Flooding events have occurred in 1998 and 2009.

The county also received a Hurricane Katrina evacuation declaration in 2005, reflecting its role as a receiving area for Gulf Coast refugees, and COVID-19 declarations in March 2020.

For a community this far inland, the frequency of hurricane-related declarations is notable — Crisp County sits well within the track zone for storms that cross Florida and maintain strength across the Coastal Plain.

Government & Municipal Code

Arabi's municipal code is published through Municode and accessible at library.municode.com/ga/arabi-town-georgia. The town does not have a locally adopted building code on file with Municode.

Weather

The nearest NWS weather station is at Cordele, 4.1 miles away. Current forecast data for Arabi's coordinates is available through the National Weather Service. Active weather alerts for the area are tracked at alerts.weather.gov.

References

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