Paulding County, Georgia
county in Georgia, United States

Paulding County is a county in the Northwest region of the U.S. state of Georgia. It had an estimated population of 168,661 in 2020. The county seat is Dallas.
History
Paulding County was created from Cherokee County by an act of the Georgia General Assembly on December 3, 1832. In 1851, a portion of Paulding County was used to help create Polk County. Other portions of Paulding County were annexed to neighboring counties (Campbell, Carroll, Cobb, Douglas, Haralson, and Polk) between 1832 and 1874. Between 1850 and 1874, Paulding County was expanded through annexation of parts of Carroll, Cobb, Douglas, and Polk counties.
The county is named after John Paulding (October 16, 1758 – February 18, 1818), who was famous for the capture of the British spy Major John André in 1780 during the American Revolution. André was on a mission carrying secret papers from Benedict Arnold when he was captured.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 314 square miles (810 km2), of which 312 square miles (810 km2) is land and 2.1 square miles (5.4 km2) (0.7%) is water.
The public source identifies “Paulding County, Georgia” as county in Georgia, United States. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Paulding, County and Georgia.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q501140. VIAF identifies the subject as 129022124. The Library of Congress control number is n82012344. Authority coordinates are 33.920, -84.870. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2020, 1832, 1851 and 1874.
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This entry incorporates text from “Paulding County, Georgia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.