Sunset Village, Georgia
Seal of Georgia
Sunset Village · Upson County, Georgia
Population 809 (est. 2026: ~900)
Source: Census ACS 2023 · ACS 2023 + 1.98% annual growth projection

Sunset Village, Georgia

Upson County, Georgia · Population 921

Sunset Village is a census-designated place tucked into Upson County in west-central Georgia, roughly midway between Atlanta and Macon. It sits just outside Thomaston, the county seat, and functions as a residential enclave rather than a commercial hub — no downtown, no Main Street, no town square. The nearest weather station is Thomaston 4SE, 3.1 miles out. For shopping, medical care, and most services, residents turn to Thomaston. For larger needs, Atlanta is about 65 miles northeast. This is small-town Georgia in the piedmont belt: quiet, ownership-heavy, and older than the state average.

People & Demographics

The 2022 ACS counted 702 residents in Sunset Village across 299 households — slightly lower than the headline population of 921, reflecting the typical lag between CDP boundary counts and ACS sample estimates. The median age is 44.0, meaningfully older than Georgia's statewide median, which reflects a community that skews toward established families and retirees rather than young professionals or recent arrivals.

The racial makeup is predominantly white (670 of 702 residents), with 32 Black residents. No Asian or Hispanic/Latino residents were recorded in the ACS sample. Average household size is 2.35 people, and 192 of 299 households are family households. Only 46 children under 18 live here, an unusually low figure for a community of this size and a signal of that older age profile.

Upson County as a whole holds roughly 27,700 people — Sunset Village represents a small slice of a county that has itself seen decades of gradual population decline as textile manufacturing hollowed out.

Economy & Employment

Median household income in Sunset Village sits at $60,104, and per capita income is $33,156. That household figure is competitive for Upson County, which runs below the Georgia statewide median. Of the 387 people in the labor force, the ACS recorded zero unemployed — a figure that likely reflects sample size limitations rather than a genuinely zero-unemployment economy.

Of those 387 workers, 346 drive alone to work and 33 carpool. Only 8 work from home. Aggregate commute time across all workers totals 11,520 minutes, which works out to roughly 30 minutes per worker per trip — consistent with commuting into Thomaston or to nearby industrial employers in the region.

Poverty touches 66 residents, or roughly 9.4% of the population — modest by Upson County standards, where poverty rates have historically run higher.

Housing

Sunset Village is overwhelmingly owner-occupied. Of 309 total housing units, 299 are occupied and just 10 sit vacant — a vacancy rate of about 3.2%, tighter than most Georgia rural markets. Of occupied units, 254 are owner-occupied versus 45 renter-occupied. That ownership rate of approximately 85% is exceptionally high.

Median home value is $126,400 — well below Georgia's statewide median, which makes Sunset Village genuinely affordable by conventional measures. Renters are few enough that the ACS did not produce a reliable median rent figure.

Schools

Students in Sunset Village attend Upson County Schools, which operates a full four-building ladder:

All four schools serve the county broadly, not Sunset Village alone. The consolidated naming reflects Upson County's merger of the old Upson and Lee district lines. Combined enrollment across the four buildings exceeds 4,000 students.

Getting Around

Sunset Village is car-dependent. No residents used public transit in the ACS sample, and none walked to work. Of 387 workers, 346 drove alone and 33 carpooled. Eight worked from home. There is no local transit infrastructure. A personal vehicle is a practical necessity for employment, groceries, and medical care. Thomaston's commercial corridor on Highway 19 is the primary destination for most daily needs.

Healthcare

Upson Regional Medical Center in Thomaston is the primary hospital serving Sunset Village. It provides inpatient and emergency services to the county. For a full directory of individual providers licensed in Sunset Village and the surrounding area, the CMS NPI Registry can be queried directly: NPI Provider Search — Sunset Village, GA.

Library

Hightower Memorial Library serves Upson County residents and sits 1.3 miles from Sunset Village. Phone: (706) 647-8649. It is part of the Flint River Regional Library System. For a community without a commercial district, the library functions as one of the few genuine public gathering spaces within reach.

Parks & Recreation

Two significant National Park Service sites are within reasonable driving distance:

Natural Hazards

Upson County has a substantial FEMA declaration history. Since 2004, the county has been included in 15 federal disaster and emergency declarations:

The pattern reflects Georgia's exposure to Gulf-tracking hurricanes, late-season tropical systems, ice storms from winter precipitation events, and the severe convective weather that sweeps through the piedmont in spring. Helene's 2024 declaration is a recent reminder that inland Georgia takes real wind and flood damage from Gulf storms well after landfall.

Government & Municipal Code

Sunset Village's municipal code is published through Municode and accessible at library.municode.com/ga/sunset-village-cdp-georgia. No local building code is in effect — construction standards default to state and county requirements.

Weather

Current forecasts for Sunset Village are available through the National Weather Service: NWS Forecast — Sunset Village area. Active weather alerts: NWS Alerts. The nearest observation station is Thomaston 4SE, 3.1 miles from the CDP.

References

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