[2] The county was created on December 15, 1818, and named for Colonel Joseph Habersham of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War.

[3] Habersham County comprises the Cornelia, GA Micropolitan Statistical Area.

2.4 miles to the northeast of Tray Mountain is Young Lick (elevation 3,809 feet (1,161 m)).

That same year, the area east of Lumpkin and west of present-day Habersham became White County.

Piedmont University and North Georgia Technical College are also located in Habersham county.

As of the 2020 United States Census, there were 46,031 people, 15,139 households, and 10,440 families residing in the county.

As of the 2010 United States census, there were 43,041 people, 15,472 households, and 11,307 families living in the county.

[22] As of the census[23] of 2000,[needs update] there were 35,902 people, 13,259 households, and 9,851 families living in the county.

The seat remained vacant until a special election in July 2007, which was won by Republican Paul Broun, an Athens physician.

Broun served in the House until 2014, when he ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the retiring Saxby Chambliss.

Former Georgia House of Representatives member Doug Collins won the seat in the 2016 election.

Habersham county is the current home of former governor Nathan Deal after his term expired in 2019.

The Georgia Department of Corrections operates the Arrendale State Prison in an unincorporated area in the county, near Alto.

The prison was named after Lee Arrendale, former chairman of the Georgia Board of Corrections, after he and his wife were killed in a plane crash.

[citation needed] The facility was originally constructed as a tuberculosis (TB) hospital, when treatment consisted primarily of rest in sanatoriums.