City · Grady County, Georgia

Cairo, Georgia

Cairo is a city in Grady County, Georgia, part of the Thomasville, GA metro area. It has 10,055 residents. Cairo, Georgia has a quality-of-life score of 5 out of 100 (very low), ranking #14,866 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Georgia it ranks #295 of 386 cities and towns. It ranks best on drug overdose deaths (low), homicide rate (low) and comfortable days (high). It ranks worst on restaurants and bars (low), job growth (low) and dental care shortage (high).

5Very low

Quality-of-life score: #14,866 of 15,651 cities and towns
Georgia: #295 of 386 in GA
Population: 10,055 (2020-2024)
Land area: 10 mi²
Density: 1,023.6 /mi²
FIPS code: 1312400

Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 73 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.

Open in the map

Scores by category

Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.

Safety71#4,503/15,637
Economy4#14,972/15,631
Housing28#10,801/14,977
Health22#12,228/15,609
Healthcare6#14,750/15,650
Environment22#12,126/15,453
Education10#14,045/15,649
Infrastructure0#15,613/15,650
Community4#15,058/15,651
Leisure & amenities33#10,435/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where Cairo, Georgia ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Grady County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.

Strengths

Drug overdose deaths · low0.0 /100k
99/100Georgia 14.1 /100kUnited States 18.4 /100kMar 2025–Feb 2026Centers for Disease Control and PreventionProvisional dataGrady County value
Homicide rate · low0.0 /100k
94/100Georgia 7.4 /100kUnited States 4.8 /100kMay 2025–Apr 2026Centers for Disease Control and PreventionProvisional dataGrady County value
Comfortable days · high32.9%
90/100Georgia 31.5%United States 26.8%2016-2025NOAA National Centers for Environmental InformationGrady County value
Child care cost burden · low22.2%
88/100Georgia 23.0%United States 27.9%2023 & 2024University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteGrady County value
Drinking water violations · low0
86/100Georgia 0United States 02024University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteGrady County value
Violent crime rate · low108 /100k
84/100Georgia 297 /100kUnited States 328 /100k2025Federal Bureau of InvestigationGrady County value

Weaknesses

Restaurants and bars · low1.5 /10k
0/100Georgia 8.5 /10kUnited States 9.0 /10k2025U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsGrady County value
Job growth · low-7.9%
0/100Georgia 0.0%United States 0.1%2026 Q1U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsProvisional dataGrady County value
Dental care shortage · high20.0
1/100Georgia 5.9United States 5.7Oct 2026Health Resources and Services AdministrationGrady County value
Mental health providers · low31 /100k
2/100Georgia 201 /100kUnited States 348 /100k2025University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteGrady County value
Uninsured residents (under 65) · high25.6%
3/100Georgia 14.0%United States 9.8%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B27010
Primary care shortage · high19.0
3/100Georgia 8.2United States 6.2Oct 2026Health Resources and Services AdministrationGrady County value

Trends

The largest changes over about five years, next to the country's over the same periods.

PopulationRising
9,446 (2015-2019) → 10,055 (2020-2024)
+6.4%5 yearsCensus table B01003US 328,329,953 → 340,003,797
New homes permittedWorsening
0.6 /1k (2021) → 0.0 /1k (Sep 2025–Aug 2026)
−100%5 yearsUS 5.2 /1k → 4.2 /1k
Broadband subscriptionsImproving
68.7% (2015-2019) → 80.8% (2020-2024)
+12 pts5 yearsCensus table B28002US 82.7% → 91.0%
Rent-burdened householdsImproving
62.8% (2015-2019) → 52.6% (2020-2024)
−10 pts5 yearsCensus table B25070US 49.6% → 51.1%
Child poverty rateImproving
47.7% (2015-2019) → 37.9% (2020-2024)
−9.8 pts5 yearsCensus table B17001US 16.8% → 15.5%
Rent as share of incomeImproving
36.7% (2015-2019) → 31.1% (2020-2024)
−5.6 pts5 yearsCensus table B25071US 29.8% → 30.6%

What changed in five years

How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.

Over about five years, Cairo, Georgia improved on 1 of 15 measures with a comparison and declined on 0. 14 moved within the margin of error and 0 barely changed.

Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing

Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.

Improved1

Broadband+12 points68.7% → 80.8%

Declined0

No measure declined by more than its margin of error.

All 15 measures

Change of every measure of Cairo, Georgia between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Average commute time	22.3 min2015-2019	23.2 min2020-2024	+0.9 min	Within the margin of error	37%
Bachelor's degree or higher	11.7%2015-2019	12.3%2020-2024	+0.5 points	Within the margin of error	31%
Broadband subscriptions	68.7%2015-2019	80.8%2020-2024	+12 points	Improved	69%
Child poverty rate	47.7%2015-2019	37.9%2020-2024	−9.8 points	Within the margin of error	81%
Effective property tax rate	1.10%2015-2019	1.06%2020-2024	−0 points	Within the margin of error	22%
High school diploma or higher	76.5%2015-2019	74.5%2020-2024	−2 points	Within the margin of error	15%
Home price to income ratio	3.5×2015-2019	2.7×2020-2024	−0.8×	Within the margin of error	97%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.4922015-2019	0.4872020-2024	−0.005	Within the margin of error	55%
Median household income	$33,4182015-2019	$40,9202020-2024	+22%	Within the margin of error	38%
Poverty rate	33.2%2015-2019	28.8%2020-2024	−4.4 points	Within the margin of error	77%
Public transit commuters	0.0%2015-2019	0.0%2020-2024	0 points	Within the margin of error	60%
Rent as share of income	36.7%2015-2019	31.1%2020-2024	−5.6 points	Within the margin of error	85%
Rent-burdened households	62.8%2015-2019	52.6%2020-2024	−10 points	Within the margin of error	83%
Unemployment rate	4.7%2015-2019	5.2%2020-2024	+0.4 points	Within the margin of error	39%
Uninsured residents (under 65)	23.4%2015-2019	25.6%2020-2024	+2.2 points	Within the margin of error	24%

“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.

Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.

Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.

Cities and towns like Cairo, Georgia five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of Cairo, Georgia in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.

For comparison, Cairo, Georgia itself moved +7.6 points in standing on average over the same 10 measures (standings of all places average about zero).

How the ranking works

Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.

Who lives here

Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).

Age and sex

10,055 residents (±41)

Men
Women

80 and over†
70–79†
60–69†

Income

How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.

Household income

3,530 households (±278)

Cairo, Georgia
Georgia share

Under $25k29%1,010
$25k–50k29%1,019
$50k–75k9.3%†327

Homes

Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.

Owners and renters

3,530 households (±278)

Cairo, Georgia
Georgia share

Own48%1,698
Rent52%1,832

No change since 2015–2019 is larger than the margin of error.

Table view

Getting to work

How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.

How people get to work

3,602 workers (±427)

Cairo, Georgia
Georgia share

Drive alone84%3,027
Carpool13%†461
Public transit0.0%0

Jobs and pay

What the largest occupations here pay, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay by metro area, not by county or city. The metro area page lists its largest occupations and lets you look up any job.

Pay in the Thomasville, GA

Local businesses

Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.

The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Grady County, the county holding most of Cairo's residents.

Grady County has 451 employer establishments, 173 for every 10,000 residents (0.70× the US rate of 248; 0.73× Georgia's), with 4,786 paid employees at an average annual pay of $42,790. The Census Bureau also counts 1,853 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 451; 1,853 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 173; US 248 · Georgia 236
Paid employees: 4,786
Average annual pay: $42,790; US $68,342

Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Grady County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation

Specialty trade contractors	40	15.3	0.99×About typical	240	$40,492	182
Ambulatory health care services	29	11.1	0.53×Fewer than typical	228	$42,105	93
Restaurants and other eating places	29	11.1	0.60×Fewer than typical	421	$15,765	12
Religious organizations	24	9.2	1.66×More than typical	100	$18,390	—
Gasoline stations	22	8.4	2.60×More than typical	102	$20,873	3
Limited-service restaurants	19	7.3	0.91×About typical	342	$15,111	3
Lessors of real estate	17	6.5	0.53×Fewer than typical	38	$40,211	96
Automotive repair and maintenance	14	5.4	1.06×About typical	47	$34,489	44
Construction of buildings	13	5	0.66×Fewer than typical	43	$56,070	66
Services to buildings and dwellings	13	5	0.74×Fewer than typical	45	$34,400	225
Insurance agencies and brokerages	12	4.6	1.05×About typical	31	$44,161	22
Foundation, structure and building exterior contractors	11	4.2	1.34×More than typical	72	$45,000	36

Rank places for an industry Open Grady County

County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 26,125 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.

Federal contracts performed here

In FY2026, an estimated $0 of federal contract obligations were for work performed in Cairo, Georgia: $0 per resident (US $1,994).

Obligations: $0
Per resident: $0; US $1,994
Sole-source: —; US 30%
Single offer: —; US 8.8%

A signal is a reason to look closer, not evidence of wrongdoing: most sole-source awards are lawful and justified.

Top buying agencies

Top recipients

Spending by fiscal year

11.9KFY2017
3.4KFY2018
174.3KFY2019
4.2KFY2022
4.7KFY2023
1.7KFY2024

What was bought

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 3, 2026, loaded Oct 3, 2026.

How this is estimated

Agencies report each contract action's place of performance as a county and a ZIP code. A ZIP code's money is split among the cities it covers by the share of its land inside each (Census 2020 ZIP code tabulation areas); the part outside city limits stays with the county.

The place of performance is what the contracting agency reports, often the contractor's office rather than where the work happens.
Shares are of land, not of people or businesses: a ZIP code that is mostly rural land but has its offices in town gives the town less than it should.
ZIP codes that are not mapped areas (post office boxes, the unique ZIP codes of large federal sites and companies) stay with their county, unless one city covers nearly all of it.
Counts of actions and awards include those only partly in Cairo, Georgia, so they do not add up across cities.

Cairo, Georgia's figures are part of those of Grady County, GA ($401.9K in FY2026), never added to them: 0.0% of that total.

Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Cairo is mostly in Grady County.

See federal money in Grady County

Representation in Congress

Members serving today, with their record in the current Congress (party-unity votes cast with their caucus, roll calls missed). Not a grade.

Cairo, Georgia is represented in the 119th Congress by these members.

House

Sanford D. Bishop, Jr.D-GA-2 · 100% of residentsWith party 93%Missed 1.9%

Senate

Explore Congress The 2026 races

County

A city can lie in several counties. Some indicators are published for counties only: the page marks them.

Grady County9100% of residents

Metro area

The metro or micro area the city belongs to.

Thomasville, GA18

Other cities and towns in Grady County

Largest first.

Similar cities and towns

Closest indicator profiles across the country (no model: score distances).

Data and sources

Latest published value of each indicator; periods differ by source. Values flagged by their publisher are marked.

PLACES: Local Data for Better HealthCenters for Disease Control and Prevention · release 2025
Local Area Unemployment StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · release 2025
American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2017-2024
Building Permits SurveyU.S. Census Bureau · release 2026-08
Population Estimates ProgramU.S. Census Bureau · release 2025
Small Area Health Insurance EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
Small Area Income and Poverty EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
County Health Rankings & RoadmapsUniversity of Wisconsin Population Health Institute · release 2022-2025+2026-03-supplement

JSON · /api/v1/places/1312400

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends