[2] Dougherty County is included in the Albany, GA metropolitan statistical area.

Historically dominated by cotton plantation agriculture in the nineteenth century, it is part of the Black Belt of the South.

Its county seat of Albany, Georgia is located on the Flint River, which was originally the chief means of transportation for shipped products.

A very small portion of Dougherty County, north of Albany, is located in the Kinchafoonee-Muckalee sub-basin of the larger ACF River Basin.

The remaining western portion of the county is located in the Ichawaynochaway Creek sub-basin of the same ACF River Basin.