Steve Albertson (right) presented a program of interesting Wilkes County statistics to his fellow members of the Washington Rotary Club at their regular Thursday lunch meeting on March 11. Based on figures posted by www.fedstats.gov, Albertson reported on the current estimated population and demographics of the county and how some of those figures relate to the state of Georgia as a whole. For example, of Wilkes County’s 10,282 people, 67 percent still live in the same house they lived in five years ago while the state percentage is only 49.2. Concerning education, he said, 65 percent of Wilkes Countians are high school graduates and 12 percent have at least a bachelor’s degree. Statewide, those figures are significantly higher at 78.6 percent and 24.3 percent, respectively. Albertson further reported that legal-age ticket buyers in Wilkes County spent a total of $6.85 million on the lottery in 2009 for a per capita average of more than $850.00. And he also reported that Wilkes Countians receive, in one way or another, a total of about $80.5 million in federal transfer receipts each year. Blake Thompson (left) thanked Albertson for providing the program.