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
Wilkes County had 4.4 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 11.4, compared to the state average of 19.3. For more community indicators, please go to OASIS .

History*

Wilkes County, the 8th county formed in Georgia, was created in 1777. Wilkes County was named for John Wilkes, a member of the British Parliament who supported the colonies' cause.

The world's first cotton gin was developed by Eli Whitney on a Wilkes County plantation. Washington, a city in Wilkes County, is the site of the Cooper-Sanders-Wickersham House, where Jefferson Davis formerly dissolved the Confederacy on May 5, 1865.

Among notable citizens of Wilkes County are Elijah Clark, a pioneer soldier and hero of the Revolutionary War; Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy and a Georgia governor; and John Springer, a minister and educator who taught at Princeton and fought in the Revolution.