Echols County is part of the Valdosta, GA metropolitan statistical area.

At the time of the 1860 census, Echols County had a white population of 1,177, with 314 slaves, and no free people of color.

[4] Echols County became notable as it has served as a place of banishment for many of Georgia's criminals.

[6] This is because almost all banished criminals choose to leave the state instead of moving to Echols County.

[8] The most recent time banishment was upheld, in 2011, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled it was constitutional to banish David Nathan Thompson (a mentally ill man who was convicted of firing a gun into a home, although no one was injured) from all but one county in Georgia.