DeKalb County became Georgia’s 56th county in 1822 when it was formed from pieces of Henry, Fayette and Gwinnett Counties. The county was named after a partner of General LaFayette, Baron Johann DeKalb, who was also instrumental in the colonists’ victory in the Revolutionary War. It is rumored that residents of Decatur, the county seat, opposed a move by the Western and Atlantic Railroad to make the town a major stop on one of its new line because they did not want to added noise and smoke pollution in their community. The Western and Atlantic railroad company then chose a town 7 miles west which would later become Atlanta. Without the rail road industry to spur economic growth, as was common in the other counties around Atlanta, DeKalb’s early economy was driven by local gins and mills the names of which appear today as street names around the county.

Today DeKalb County is the business destination, a 270-square mile gateway to key workforce, infrastructure and lifestyle amenities and advantages that have a major impact on the metropolitan Atlanta area. DeKalb boasts more than 60 million square feet of office and industrial space, several thousand acres of undeveloped land and more interstate miles than any county in Georgia. This pro-business climate allowed DeKalb businesses to add 70,000 net new jobs in the 1990s with a projected growth of another 40,000 in the next decade. At the same time a variety of housing options and an aggressive county initiative to build a major nature preserve all contribute to DeKalb's widely sought after quality of life. Due to these excellent living and employment conditions, population in DeKalb grew by an estimated 68,500 people, or 12.4 percent, in the 1990s and add another 84,000 residents over the next decade.