Formed November 2, 1920 (156th county)
Lanier County (9,880), Lakeland (2,879)
The brown brick Modern style courthouse was built in 1973 to replace the 1921 courthouse. The county was created in 1920 with Lakeland as the only county seat. The building sits at Main and Carter streets, on United States Highway 129. Thomson, Sanders & Dupree are the building designers. Veteran memorials are on the grounds. Lanier County was created on November 2, 1920 from parts of Berrien, Clinch, and Lowndes counties as the 156th county. The county is named for Poet Sidney Lanier. Lakeland is named for the number of lakes in the area. The county center is 6.3 miles East-Southeast of Lakeland.
Lanier County government consists of a sheriff, an administrator, a coroner, a clerk, and a tax commissioner (executive). It has 5 Commissioners (legislative.) Sixteen Superior Court Judges serve Lanier, Atkinson, Baker, Berrien, Brooks, Calhoun, Clay, Clinch, Colquitt, Cook, Decatur, Dougherty, Early, Echols, Grady, Irwin, Lowndes, Miller, Mitchell, Quitman, Randolph, Seminole, Terrell, Thomas, Tift, Turner, and Worth counties and Four County Judges, court clerk, and county attorney serve Lanier County (judicial.) The county is in southern Georgia immediately northeast of Valdosta, Georgia. The Alapaha River flows through the middle of the county. The county is surrounded clockwise by Atkinson, Clinch, Echols, Lowndes, and Berrien counties.
The area of the county is 187 square miles. It is 144 out of 159 counties in the state. It ranks 124 out of 159 in population in the state. It has a density of 52.8 persons per square mile making it 91 out of 159 in the state. Lanier County has 29.1% of its population in its incorporated areas. United States Highway 84 crosses the extreme southern part of the county east to west from Clinch County to Lowndes County. United States Highway 129 comes in from the northwest, Berrien County, and goes south, Echols County. United States Highway 221 goes northeast to southwest in the county from Clinch County to Lowndes County. The county looks like a comma with Lakeland located slightly north of center in the county. Lakeland is the county seat and the largest city since it is the incorporated city. It is 29.1% of the county population. This county is in the Valdosta Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Lakeland
