DeKalb County (/dəˈkæb/, /ˌdiːˈkæb/ də-KAB, DEE-KAB) is located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia.

In recent years, some communities in North DeKalb have incorporated, following a trend in other suburban areas around Metro Atlanta.

The area of DeKalb county was acquired by the state of Georgia as a result of the 1821 Treaty of Indian Springs with a faction of the Muscogee (Creek).

DeKalb County, formed in 1822 from Henry, Gwinnett and Fayette counties, took its name from Baron Johann de Kalb (1721–1780), a Bavarian-born former officer in the French Army, who fought for the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War.

In 1853, Fulton County formed from the western half of DeKalb, divided along a perfectly straight and due north–south line down the middle (along which Moreland Avenue now runs).

DeKalb once extended slightly further north to the Chattahoochee River, but this strip was later given to Milton, and is now the panhandle of Sandy Springs.

Interstate 675 and Georgia 400 were originally planned to connect inside the Perimeter, along with the Stone Mountain Freeway (U.S. Highway 78) connecting with the Downtown Connector (a co-signment of I-75/I-85) near Moreland Avenue, destroying many neighborhoods in western DeKalb, but community opposition in the early 1970s spared them this fate of urbanization, although part of the proposed Stone Mountain Tollway later became the Freedom Parkway.

U.S. Marine and sculptor Curtis James Miller designed a memorial that is located in front of the Dekalb County Fire and Police Headquarters.

A piece of steel from one of the World Trade Center Towers in New York City is the centerpiece of this monument.

In 2020 this was the case, except that the Emory University/Centers for Disease Control area at the time was still in DeKalb County schools.

[33] In 2018 the City of Atlanta had annexed the region,[34] but initially it was still covered by DeKalb County schools.

Georgia Military College (GMC) has a satellite campus in Stone Mountain Village.

Georgia Piedmont Technical College trains students in business, engineering, technologies, health, human services, industrial arts, information systems, and transportation.

DeVry University offers bachelor's and master's degrees in healthcare, accounting, business, and management technology.

[44] The current Chief Executive Officer of DeKalb County is Lorraine Cochran-Johnson, a Democrat.

The design is based on a passage from Aristotle in which a comparison is made between human progress and the relay race.

The background landscape shows planted fields, which is a tribute to DeKalb's heritage as an agrarian community.

[49] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is based in the Druid Hills CDP in an unincorporated area in the county.

[56] The Metro State Prison of the Georgia Department of Corrections was formerly located in an unincorporated area in DeKalb County.

The goal of the greenway is to provide residents with close-to-home and close-to-work access to bicycle and pedestrian trails, serve transportation and recreation needs, and help encourage quality of life and sustainable economic growth.