[2] The county was established in 1819 and is named in honor of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry of Rhode Island and the United States Navy.

[5] The Perry County town of Marion was the site of a 1965 killing of an unarmed Black man, Jimmie Lee Jackson, by a white state trooper, James Bonard Fowler, which sparked the Selma to Montgomery marches.

In 2008, the county voted to establish a Barack Obama Day, a legal holiday, every second Monday of November.

[8] As of the 2020 United States census, there were 8,511 people, 3,070 households, and 1,476 families residing in the county.

[17] As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 10,591 people living in the county.

Nearly 27.90% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.00% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

Perry County Circuit Clerk Perry County is home to Perry Lakes Park, part of the Talladega National Forest, the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame located at Judson College, and Marion Military Institute.