The Case of Clayton County

As I've written in the last couple of days, I'm looking at changes in full-time undergrad numbers at UGA in terms of Georgia counties. Look back here if you want a summary of the change, and here specifically about Hispanics.

This is about one county.

I was cranking the numbers of percentage of females from all counties in 1998 and 2014 and Clayton County popped out as unusual in a couple of ways. How?

• In 1998 it was ranked 12th in supplying students to UGA. By 2014 it had dropped to 27th. 
• In raw numbers, Clayton supplied 137 fewer students in 2014 than it did in 1998. That's a 43.1 percent drop.
• But ... it's percentage of female students climbed dramatically. About half of the students in 1998 were female. By 2014 it was 66.9 percent female. So, a 16.2 percentage point increase in females while the number of students dropped.
• And yet, the raw number of females from Clayton dropped from 161 to 121.  Males, though, dropped from 150 to 59.
• Finally, the percentage of black students from Clayton was18.9 percent in 1998. by 2014 it was 54.7 percent.

Clayton is roughly two-thirds black in the 2010 Census (about half black in the 2000 Census) and, of course, is dominated by the presence of the country's busiest airport. It's fascinating to me that while the county sends fewer students to UGA, females dominate more. Perhaps this says something about the state of black males in society, or the Clayton school system, or -- well -- I dunno. I'm not a sociologist. The raw number of black students from Clayton increased from 60 to 99. The real difference is whites. In 2014, Clayton sent 217 white students to UGA. By 2014, that was down to 16. So black female students appear to be carrying the UGA load in Clayton County.