[2] The county was created on December 30, 1851, and named after George Whitefield, Methodist evangelist.

[5] As of the 2020 United States census, there were 102,864 people, 34,518 households, and 25,351 families residing in the county.

As of the 2010 United States census, there were 102,599 people, 35,180 households, and 26,090 families residing in the county.

20.60% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.20% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

Like much of the rest of Georgia, Whitfield County was strongly Democratic in the early 20th century, albeit less so than other parts of the state; it went Republican for William Howard Taft in 1908, Warren G. Harding in 1920 and for Herbert Hoover in 1928.

The three Republicans would lose Georgia but win their respective national elections.

It would flip back to the Democrats and Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, even as Barry Goldwater would become the first Republican to ever carry the state of Georgia in a presidential election.

However, it would be one of the last hurrahs for the Democratic Party in Whitfield County; Hubert Humphrey would finish third here in 1968 behind Richard Nixon and third-party candidate George Wallace, and it would give Nixon over 80% of the vote in 1972.