Georgia Long-Term Care Statistics: What Care Costs, How Many Have Income at or Above the Price, and Where Georgians 65+ Live

Key Findings

• 6.5% of Georgians 65 or older who live alone had a 2024 income at or above the cost of one year in a private nursing home room at Georgia’s 2025 median private-pay price of $113,150, counting income only and not savings (2024 Census data, 2025 CareScout prices). How we got this
  Source: U.S. Census Bureau (American Community Survey); CareScout Cost of Care Survey; analysis by The Hive Law
• 14.8% of Georgians aged 85 or older lived in a household headed by their son or daughter (including stepchildren and adopted children) or their son- or daughter-in-law, and 6.1% lived in a nursing home or other institution (2024 Census data). How we got this
  Source: U.S. Census Bureau (American Community Survey); analysis by The Hive Law
• Among Georgians 65 or older not living in a nursing home or other institution, 17.2% of those who have difficulty doing errands alone (such as visiting a doctor’s office or shopping) because of a physical, mental or emotional condition lived in a household headed by their son, daughter or child-in-law, against 5.6% of those without it (2024 Census data). After allowing for age, that is about two and a half times as likely. How we got this
  Source: U.S. Census Bureau (American Community Survey); analysis by The Hive Law
• By The Hive Law’s estimate, about 64% of Georgians 65 or older who live alone could not pay for one year in a private nursing home room at Georgia’s 2025 median price from a year’s income plus everything they own apart from their home, with no other payer such as insurance or Medicare counted (2024 Census survey data, 2025 prices). How we got this
  Source: U.S. Census Bureau (Survey of Income and Program Participation); CareScout; estimate by The Hive Law
• The median 2024 income of Georgia households headed by someone 65 or older equals 49.5% of Georgia’s 2025 median price for a year in a private nursing home room, and by metro area it is about a third in Columbus (33.7%), Macon-Bibb County (37.9%) and Rome (38.6%) and more than half in Atlanta (53.3%), Savannah (57.7%) and Gainesville (64.1%) (2024 Census income data, 2025 CareScout prices). How we got this
  Source: U.S. Census Bureau; CareScout; analysis by The Hive Law
• 6.9% of Georgians 65 or older lived in a household headed by their son, daughter or child-in-law, against 5.6% of all Americans 65 or older, which puts Georgia in the top ten of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, 5th to 9th once margins of error are counted (2024 Census data). How we got this
  Source: U.S. Census Bureau (American Community Survey)
• 30.1% of widowed Georgians 65 or older shared a home with an adult son or daughter, either in their own home with a son or daughter 18 or older living there or in a household headed by their son, daughter or child-in-law, against 15.3% of married Georgians 65 or older, so widowed Georgians were about twice as likely to share a home this way (2024 Census data). How we got this
  Source: U.S. Census Bureau (American Community Survey); analysis by The Hive Law
• In 2025, Medicaid was the primary payer for 71% of residents of Georgia’s certified nursing homes (all ages, including short rehab stays), against 63% nationally, and Georgia was tied for the 5th-highest share of the 50 states and the District of Columbia (KFF analysis of CMS data). How we got this
  Source: KFF analysis of CMS data

The Prices Behind These Figures

In 2025, the median private-pay price of a year of long-term care in Georgia was $23,400 for adult day care, $63,600 for assisted living, $73,216 for an in-home caregiver 44 hours a week, $105,850 for a shared nursing home room and $113,150 for a private room (CareScout Cost of Care Survey 2025).

Every care price here comes from CareScout’s Cost of Care Survey 2025, except where we compare it with CareScout’s 2024 survey. CareScout is owned by Genworth Financial. The survey asks care providers what they charge people who pay privately. It was done from July to November 2025.

These are median prices. Half of providers charge more and half charge less. They are private-pay prices, not what Medicaid or Medicare pays a nursing home. They are not what a particular family pays.

Read the in-home row carefully. It is priced at 44 hours a week, not care around the clock. More hours cost more.

A private nursing home room in Georgia cost a median $113,150 in 2025, against $129,575 nationally. That made Georgia 40th most expensive of the 49 states CareScout ranked on private-room price.

CareScout ranks states from most expensive (1st) to least expensive. In 2025, Georgia was 43rd of 50 states on assisted living, 39th of 50 on a shared nursing home room, 39th of 50 on an in-home caregiver 44 hours a week (tied with Florida), and 29th of 45 on adult day care (tied with Texas).

From CareScout’s 2024 survey to its 2025 survey, Georgia’s median nursing home prices did not change. Assisted living rose 7.3%. In-home care rose from $65,780 to $73,216 a year, about 11% (CareScout’s own figure, from hourly rates, is 10%).

For what a nursing home costs each month and what the price covers, see how much a nursing home costs in Georgia. For how families plan for these costs, see our page on long-term care planning in Georgia.

How Many Older Georgians Have an Income at or Above the Cost of Care

We start with Georgians 65 or older who live alone. For them, household income is their own income. That makes the comparison clean. There were 426,993 of them in 2024.

6.5% of Georgians 65 or older who live alone had a 2024 income at or above the cost of one year in a private nursing home room at Georgia’s 2025 median private-pay price of $113,150, counting income only and not savings (2024 Census data, 2025 CareScout prices).

This counts income only. Savings, the value of a home, insurance, and programs that pay for care, such as Medicaid or Medicare, are not in it. Savings and other wealth are measured separately, as The Hive Law’s estimate from a second Census survey.

The median 2024 income of Georgians 65 or older who live alone was $29,442. A year in a private room at Georgia’s median price ($113,150) is 3.84 times that median income.

Here is the same test for each type of care. Each column is a separate group of Georgians who live alone. Each cell is the share whose 2024 income was at or above one year of that care at Georgia’s 2025 median price.

The nursing home figures for people 85 or older, and for people with difficulty doing errands alone, rest on few survey records. We print their standard errors so you can see how rough they are.

The shares do not add up. Anyone whose income is at or above a private room is also at or above every cheaper type of care.

The private-room share barely moves with age: 6.9% at 65 to 74, 5.9% at 75 to 84 and 6.1% at 85 or older. No age group of Georgians who live alone is much better placed than the others.

Women are 68.7% of Georgians 65 or older who live alone. 5.4% of women 65 or older who live alone had a 2024 income at or above a year in a private nursing home room at Georgia’s 2025 median price, against 8.8% of men (2024 Census data). The gap is still there after allowing for age.

Households Headed by Someone 65 or Older

Most older Georgians do not live alone. So we ran the same test on Georgia households headed by someone 65 or older.

21.7% of Georgia households headed by someone 65 or older had a 2024 household income at or above the cost of one year in a private nursing home room at Georgia’s 2025 median price (2024 Census data, 2025 CareScout prices). For married couples it was 35.9%, but that figure sets the couple’s combined income against one person’s care, with nothing left for the other spouse. So it overstates what one person could spend.

These are households, not people. Do not add the married-couple column to the living-alone column. The median income in the last column is from the Census survey’s public sample. The Census Bureau’s published figure for all Georgia households headed by someone 65 or older is $56,010, which we use in the metro comparison.

If you are asking how older Georgians pay for a nursing home, our guide on how to qualify for Medicaid for a Georgia nursing home covers that question.

Income Plus Savings and Other Wealth

Income is only part of the picture. A second Census survey, the Survey of Income and Program Participation, also asks about savings and other wealth. It covers far fewer Georgians, and using it takes some assumptions, so these figures are estimates.

By The Hive Law’s estimate, about 64% of Georgians 65 or older who live alone could not pay for one year in a private nursing home room at Georgia’s 2025 median price from a year’s income plus everything they own apart from their home, with no other payer such as insurance or Medicare counted (2024 Census survey data, 2025 prices). By the same estimate, the survey’s margin of error puts it between 55.6% and 73.2%.

By The Hive Law’s estimate, counting their home too, about 37% of Georgians 65 or older who live alone could not pay for that year, and the survey’s margin of error puts it between 25.1% and 48.7%.

“Everything they own” means net worth: savings, investments, retirement accounts, cars and business shares, minus debts. The estimate treats all of a year’s income and all of that net worth as available for care, with nothing kept back for other bills or taxes. It does not count Medicare, long-term care insurance, veterans’ benefits or help from family. Some of these push the estimate up and some push it down, so it is not a floor or a ceiling. It rests on 96 one-person Georgia households in the survey.

Here is the estimate for each type of care, for Georgians 65 or older who live alone. Each cell is the share who could pay for at least one year.

All figures in this table are The Hive Law’s estimates.

Households of two or more people are different. By The Hive Law’s estimate, 75.9% of Georgia households of two or more headed by someone 65 or older could pay for a year in a private nursing home room from income plus everything they own apart from the home, with both people’s income and wealth counted for one person’s care and nothing left for the other (2024 Census survey data, 2025 prices). That figure shows what the household holds, not what one person could spend.

We also looked at how many years the money would last on average. We do not publish that figure. The survey sample is too small to give a reliable answer.

For context, the median net worth of all Georgia households headed by someone 65 or older was $287,000 in December 2024. Without the value of their home, it was $71,000. That second figure still includes cars, businesses and retirement accounts, so it is not the same as cash savings.

Many older Georgians own their home outright. 48.3% of Georgia households headed by someone 65 or older owned their home free and clear in 2024. The median value of those homes, at the owner’s own estimate, was $280,000. By The Hive Law’s estimate, that equals about 2.47 years in a private nursing home room at Georgia’s 2025 median price, before any selling costs.

That figure says nothing about how Medicaid treats a home. That is a legal question. Our guide to protecting your home from Medicaid estate recovery covers it, and our guide to what assets are protected from Medicaid in Georgia explains which assets count.

How Many Georgia Seniors Live With Their Children

Sharing a home with an adult son or daughter can go two ways. The older person may live in their own home with a grown son or daughter there. Or the older person may live in a household headed by their son, daughter or child-in-law. We count both, and keep them apart.

In 2024, about 1 in 5 Georgians 65 or older (19.1%) shared a home with an adult son or daughter. That was 12.1% in their own home with a son or daughter 18 or older living there, and 7.0% in a household headed by their son, daughter or child-in-law. No one is in both groups (2024 Census data).

Neither figure tells us who gives care, who helps whom, or who moved in with whom. “A household headed by” their son or daughter means the Census listed the older person as the parent or parent-in-law of the person in charge of the home. Some of these parents may own or co-own the home.

The combined share is about the same at 65 to 74 and 75 to 84, and higher at 85 or older. In older age groups, the mix is weighted toward living in a household headed by a son, daughter or child-in-law.

14.8% of Georgians aged 85 or older lived in a household headed by their son or daughter (including stepchildren and adopted children) or their son- or daughter-in-law, and 6.1% lived in a nursing home or other institution (2024 Census data).

“Other institution” includes prisons and other institutions. In the 2020 Census, 98.6% of Georgians 85 or older who lived in an institution were in a nursing home. The 2020 Census, a different count, found 8.84% of Georgians 85 or older living in a nursing or skilled-nursing facility. On either count, more Georgians 85 or older live in a household headed by their son, daughter or child-in-law than in a nursing home or other institution.

Where Georgians 65+ Live, by Age

Here is the complete picture. Each column adds to 100%, give or take rounding.

This table is from the Census survey’s public sample. The Census Bureau’s own published table gives slightly different statewide totals: 24.3% of Georgians 65 or older live alone, and 6.9% live in a household headed by their son, daughter or child-in-law. We use the Census Bureau’s table when comparing Georgia with other states.

Do not read the institution row as a trend by age. This survey’s count of people in institutions by age does not match the 2020 Census. For ages 65 to 74 in particular, the row includes people in prisons, so never call it “nursing homes.”

Older age groups here are different people, not the same people years later. For example, the share who are widowed rises from 12.2% at 65 to 74 to 52.4% at 85 or older. So the table does not show people moving in with their children as they age.

Women are more likely than men to live in a household headed by their son, daughter or child-in-law: 9.2% of Georgia women 65 or older against 4.1% of men (2024 Census data). In the 2020 to 2024 Census survey data, the gap is among unmarried people. Among married Georgians 65 or older there is no meaningful difference between women and men. The data does not say why.

A different measure: 7.0% of Georgians 65 or older who live in a household (not in group housing) live in a multigenerational household. That means three or more generations under one roof, which can also be a grandparent heading a home with their grown child and grandchildren (2024 Census data).

Difficulty Doing Errands Alone

The Census asks whether a person has difficulty doing errands alone, such as visiting a doctor’s office or shopping, because of a physical, mental or emotional condition. The person or someone in the home answers. It is not a medical test, and it does not mean the person needs paid care. These figures cover only people not living in a nursing home or other institution.

Among Georgians not living in a nursing home or other institution, 7.5% of people aged 65 to 74 report difficulty doing errands alone, 15.7% of those aged 75 to 84, and 41.8% of those 85 or older (2024 Census data).

Among Georgians 65 or older not living in a nursing home or other institution, 17.2% of those who have difficulty doing errands alone (such as visiting a doctor’s office or shopping) because of a physical, mental or emotional condition lived in a household headed by their son, daughter or child-in-law, against 5.6% of those without it (2024 Census data). After allowing for age, that is about two and a half times as likely.

“After allowing for age” matters. People with this difficulty are older on average, and at older ages more people live in a household headed by a son, daughter or child-in-law, with or without the difficulty. A gap remains inside every age group:

Counting both ways of sharing a home with an adult son or daughter, 31.6% of Georgians 65 or older not living in a nursing home or other institution who have difficulty doing errands alone share a home with one, against 17.7% of those without that difficulty (2024 Census data). After allowing for age, that is about 1.7 times as likely, a smaller multiple than for the household-headed-by direction alone.

About one in four Georgians 65 or older not living in a nursing home or other institution who have difficulty doing errands alone (25.6%) live alone. After allowing for age, they are somewhat less likely to live alone than people without the difficulty.

The pattern is similar for memory and thinking. Among Georgians 65 or older not living in a nursing home or other institution, 16.8% of those with serious difficulty concentrating, remembering or making decisions lived in a household headed by their son, daughter or child-in-law, against 6.3% of those without it, and the gap holds after allowing for age (2024 Census data).

This data shows these things go together. It does not show which came first, whether anyone moved because of the difficulty, or whether the son or daughter gives help. If you are thinking about who would make decisions for you if you could not, see our page on incapacity planning in Georgia.

Widowed and Married Georgians

30.1% of widowed Georgians 65 or older shared a home with an adult son or daughter, either in their own home with a son or daughter 18 or older living there or in a household headed by their son, daughter or child-in-law, against 15.3% of married Georgians 65 or older, so widowed Georgians were about twice as likely to share a home this way (2024 Census data).

Most of the gap between widowed and married Georgians is in who lives in a household headed by a son, daughter or child-in-law. Married Georgians 65 or older are somewhat less likely than the widowed to have an adult son or daughter living in their own home (12.4% against 15.2%).

Looking at one direction only, 14.8% of widowed Georgians 65 or older and 3.0% of married Georgians 65 or older lived in a household headed by their son, daughter or child-in-law in 2024. After allowing for age, widowed Georgians were about four to five times as likely to live this way; within each age group, about three to four and a half times.

The data does not say why. A widowed parent may move to a son’s or daughter’s home, or a son or daughter may move in. The Census records neither.

What Percentage of Georgia Seniors Live in Nursing Homes

On Census Day, April 1, 2020, 2.16% of Georgians 65 or older lived in a nursing or skilled-nursing facility. By age, it was 0.95% at 65 to 74, 2.58% at 75 to 84 and 8.84% at 85 or older.

In 2024, the American Community Survey found 2.1% of Georgians 65 or older living in any institution. That includes nursing homes, prisons and other institutions. The two sources count people in institutions differently, especially by age, so they do not show whether the share went up or down.

Georgia Nursing Homes at a Glance

Georgia has 356 nursing homes certified by Medicare, Medicaid or both (CMS file processed August 2026). Together they have 39,494 certified beds; 355 of the 356 homes report a bed count. On an average day they have about 31,770 residents, counting the 353 homes that report a resident count. Those residents are all ages, including people there for a short rehab stay after a hospital visit.

69.4% of Georgia’s 356 certified nursing homes are run for profit. Another 93 are non-profit and 16 are run by a government (CMS file processed August 2026).