Albany is located in and is the county seat of Dougherty County, Georgia. It is the principal city of the Albany, Georgia metropolitan area and the southwest part of the state. The population was 77,434 at the 2010 U.S. Census, making it the ninth-largest city in Georgia.

 American settlement began with Nelson Tift, a businessman from Connecticut, who took land along the Flint River in October 1836 after Indian removal. The Creek were forced to relocate to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. Tift named his new town Albany after the capital of New York; both were located at the navigable heads of rivers. Alexander Shotwell laid out the town in 1836. It was incorporated as a city by an act of the General Assembly of Georgia on December 27, 1838.

Per 2010 census:

Population: 77,431

Median household income: $26,311