For pre-formatted natality & mortality data please see Vital Statistics Reports (VSR).

For other health data resources please see the Health Data & Info section.

Health Care
Ben Hill County had 14 licensed nursing home beds per 100 persons in 1999, compared with the state average of 5.5 per 100 persons. In 1999, the number of physicians in the county per 10,000 persons was 8, compared to the state average of 19.3. For more community indicators, please go to OASIS .

History*

Ben Hill County was created in 1906 from Irwin and Wilcox Counties and was named for Benjamin Harvey Hill. Hill was a U.S. senator from Georgia, a Whig leader, and a staunch opponent of Reconstruction.

The county has only one incorporated city, Fitzgerald, which was founded by former Union soldiers on a 50,000-acre tract owned by the non-profit American Tribune Soldiers Colony Company. The citizens of Fitzgerald, pledging unity with their former enemies, named streets after leaders of both armies. The early concentration of population in the city aided the county's industrial development. The colony also founded the first public school in Georgia to offer free books and tuition.