Athens-Clarke County is a consolidated city�county in U.S. state of Georgia, in the northeastern part of the state, comprising the former City of Athens proper (the county seat) and Clarke County. The University of Georgia is located in this college town and is responsible for the initial growth of the city. In 1991, after a vote the preceding year, the original city abandoned its charter in order to form a unified government with Clarke County, referred to collectively as Athens-Clarke County. As of the 2010 census, the consolidated city-county (including all of Athens-Clarke County except Winter ville and a portion of Bogart) had a total population of 115,452; all of Clarke County had a population of 116,714. Athens-Clarke County is the sixth-largest city in Georgia and the principal city of the Athens-Clarke County, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a population of 192,541 as of the 2010 Census
