Bishop, Georgia
Seal of Georgia
Bishop · Oconee County, Georgia
Population 484 (est. 2026: ~300)
Source: Census ACS 2023 · ACS 2023 + -11.78% annual growth projection

Bishop, Georgia

Oconee County, Georgia · Population 332

Bishop sits in the western corner of Oconee County, roughly 20 miles east of Athens and within easy reach of the broader Athens-Clarke County metro area. It is a small, quiet community — 332 people on the latest count, with a dense concentration of families and a housing market that punches well above its size. Most residents commute out for work. Most own their homes. Children are everywhere relative to the town's scale. Bishop functions less as a commercial center and more as a settled residential community inside one of Georgia's wealthiest and fastest-growing suburban counties.

People & Demographics

The ACS 2022 estimate puts Bishop's population at 456. The median age is 34.4, meaningfully younger than most small Georgia communities. That youthfulness shows up directly in the household data: 133 of 145 households are family households, and 151 residents are children under 18. The average household size of 3.14 is well above typical Georgia figures, which hover near 2.5.

The racial breakdown: 359 residents identify as white, 63 as Black, 4 as Asian, and 17 identify as Hispanic or Latino. Oconee County as a whole counts 41,799 residents — Bishop represents a small but demographically distinct slice of a county that leans older and wealthier.

Economy & Employment

The median household income in Bishop is $126,875. That figure demands context: it is strikingly high for a town of this size, and it positions Bishop among the more affluent small communities in Georgia, where the statewide median household income runs considerably lower. Per capita income comes in at $43,943. Only 18 residents fall below the poverty line.

Of 271 residents in the labor force, just 5 are unemployed — an unemployment rate under 2 percent. What people actually do for work isn't captured in the data, but the commute pattern tells the story: nearly everyone drives to Athens or beyond. Bishop itself has essentially no commercial employment base.

Housing

Bishop's housing stock is tiny — 150 total units — and nearly full. Only 5 units sit vacant. Of 145 occupied units, 128 are owner-occupied and 17 are renter-occupied. That 88 percent ownership rate is unusually high.

The median home value is $392,000. That is a substantial number for rural Georgia, reflecting both Oconee County's broader pricing pressure and the desirability of living in a small-town setting within commuting range of Athens and the University of Georgia. Median rent, by contrast, is $872 — low relative to home values, and likely reflective of a very thin rental market with limited turnover.

Schools

Elementary-aged children in Bishop attend High Shoals Elementary School, which serves grades PreK through 5 with an enrollment of 557 students. That enrollment figure exceeds Bishop's entire population several times over, indicating the school draws from a wide surrounding area. For middle and high school, Bishop students feed into the Oconee County school system, which has a strong reputation and draws families to the county specifically for its schools.

Getting Around

Bishop is a car-required community. Of 266 workers, 222 drove alone to work. Ten carpooled. Not a single resident commuted by public transit or on foot. Thirty-four worked from home — about 13 percent, a meaningful share.

The aggregate travel time for all workers was 5,965 minutes. Divided across the workforce, that works out to roughly 22 minutes per commute on average — reasonable for access to Athens, which sits about 20 miles to the west.

Healthcare

No hospitals or clinics are identified within Bishop itself. The nearest significant medical facilities are in Athens, which hosts Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center and a range of specialty providers. For a searchable list of licensed healthcare providers registered in Bishop through CMS, the NPI Registry covers current entries.

Library

The nearest public library is the Oconee County Library, located 5.7 miles from Bishop. It can be reached at (706) 769-3950 and serves as the county's primary public library branch.

Parks & Recreation

The Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, administered by the National Park Service, is the closest NPS-managed land. The Island Ford Visitor Center, one of the recreation area's main access points, is approximately 48.6 miles from Bishop. The Chattahoochee corridor offers river access, hiking, and wildlife habitat within an hour's drive for Bishop residents.

Natural Hazards

Oconee County has a long FEMA declaration history, and Bishop sits squarely within that risk profile. The county has been included in federal disaster declarations going back to 1973, covering a wide range of event types:

The pattern reflects Georgia's vulnerability to Atlantic hurricane remnants, which regularly push inland and bring damaging wind and rain well past the coast, as well as the state's periodic severe ice storms that can cripple roads and infrastructure.

Government & Municipal Code

Bishop operates under a municipal code published through Municode and accessible at library.municode.com/ga/bishop-town-georgia. The town does not have a locally adopted building code on file.

Weather

Current forecasts and conditions for Bishop are available through the National Weather Service at forecast.weather.gov. Active weather alerts for the area can be monitored at alerts.weather.gov. The nearest official weather observation station is BISHOP 3.0 WNW, located 1.2 miles from town.

References

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