Rochelle, Georgia
Seal of Georgia
Rochelle · Wilcox County, Georgia
Population 1,218 (est. 2026: ~1,300)
Source: Census ACS 2023 · ACS 2023 + 2.05% annual growth projection

Rochelle, Georgia

Wilcox County, Georgia · Population 1,167

Rochelle sits near the center of Wilcox County in the coastal plain of south-central Georgia, roughly 50 miles north of Valdosta and 130 miles south of Macon. It is the county seat of one of Georgia's smaller rural counties, where pine stands and row-crop agriculture define the landscape. With just over 1,100 residents, Rochelle is a place where county government, the school system, and a handful of small businesses form the backbone of daily life. This is deep rural Georgia — the kind of town where nearly everyone knows the county's disaster history by heart, because they lived through most of it.

People & Demographics

The ACS 2022 survey counts 992 residents in Rochelle proper, within a county of 8,766. The median age is 40.5. The racial makeup is roughly 59% white and 40% Black, with no measurable Asian or Hispanic/Latino population recorded in the survey data. The town has 429 occupied households averaging 2.31 people per household. Children under 18 number 244 — nearly a quarter of the population — which reflects the presence of an active school system and a relatively young family demographic sitting beneath the median age figure.

Economy & Employment

The median household income in Rochelle is $27,404 — well below Georgia's statewide median, which hovers near $65,000. Per capita income sits at $22,317. Of the 992 surveyed residents, 317 fall below the federal poverty line, a poverty rate of roughly 32%. The labor force counts 351 people, with 29 unemployed at the time of the survey. The local economy is characteristic of rural south Georgia: agriculture, county government, schools, and small retail. Residents who commute often head to larger centers in adjacent counties for employment.

Housing

Rochelle's housing stock totals 636 units. Of those, 429 are occupied and 207 are vacant — a vacancy rate of about 33%, which is high even by rural Georgia standards and reflects broader population loss in Wilcox County over time. Owner-occupied units number 242; renters occupy 187. The median home value is $66,700, making this one of the more affordable places to own property in Georgia by raw numbers. Median rent comes in at $444 per month. For a household earning the town's median income, housing costs represent a manageable share of take-home pay, though low incomes still create affordability strain for many residents.

Schools

All Rochelle students attend Wilcox County Schools, a single-district system with three campuses:

The three schools collectively serve about 1,188 students, a notable figure for a county of under 9,000 people. The school system is one of the largest employers in Wilcox County.

Getting Around

Rochelle is car-dependent. Of 322 workers in the commute data, 273 drove alone and 18 carpooled. Zero use public transit — none exists. Five people walked to work. Fourteen worked from home. The aggregate travel time for all workers totals 7,955 minutes, suggesting an average one-way commute of roughly 25 minutes, consistent with workers driving to neighboring counties for jobs.

Healthcare

No hospital operates within Rochelle itself. Residents typically travel to facilities in Fitzgerald (Ben Hill County) or Cordele (Crisp County) for hospital-level care, each roughly 25–35 miles out. For a full list of individual healthcare providers registered in Rochelle, the CMS NPI Registry lists licensed practitioners by city.

Library

The Wilcox County Library serves county residents and is located approximately 8.9 miles from Rochelle. Contact: (229) 467-2075.

Parks & Recreation

Andersonville National Historic Site, administered by the National Park Service, lies roughly 43 miles northeast of Rochelle. The site preserves the former Confederate prisoner-of-war camp where more than 13,000 Union soldiers died during the Civil War and is home to the National Prisoner of War Museum, located approximately 43.7 miles from Rochelle. It is one of the more significant NPS units in south-central Georgia and draws visitors from across the region.

Natural Hazards

Wilcox County's FEMA disaster declaration record is one of the more active in rural Georgia. The county has been included in 15 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1998:

The pattern is clear: this part of Georgia sits in the path of Gulf-origin hurricanes that retain destructive force well inland, and is also vulnerable to severe convective storms and, increasingly, winter weather events. The 2024 hurricane season alone produced three separate federal declarations for the county.

Government & Municipal Code

Rochelle operates under a city charter and maintains its municipal code through Municode. The full code is available at library.municode.com/ga/rochelle-city-georgia. No local building code is in effect — construction and structural standards default to state and county requirements.

Weather

Current forecasts for Rochelle are available through the National Weather Service. Active weather alerts can be checked at alerts.weather.gov. The nearest weather observation station is Abbeville 4S, located 8.1 miles from Rochelle.

References

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