"All right, Bernard, this is your last chance," the owner of Love's Wedding Chapel on Wrightsboro Road said Wednesday with a laugh to the soon-to-be husband.

Hollis, 25, flashed a quick smile but didn't waver in his plans to marry his sweetheart, Patsy Chambliss. Twenty minutes later, he did.

"By the state of Georgia ... it is my privilege and honor to present Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Hollis," Love, an ordained minister, said to the small gathering of friends and family who witnessed the ceremony.

With that, the Hollises bucked a nearly three-decade trend.

Data from the past two censuses and the 2008 American Community Survey show an increasing number of people in the three-county Augusta area are choosing to stay single.

In 2008, Richmond County had the highest percentage of people age 15 and older who had never married, at nearly 38 percent. Columbia County had the lowest, at nearly 23 percent.

But all three area counties, including Aiken, have seen an increase in those percentages since 1990. Correspondingly, the percentage of people who are married declined over that time. The percentage who got a divorce increased.

Data compiled from the 2010 census will show the state of these trends and other ones locally and nationally at the end of the past decade. The U.S. Census Bureau will mail or deliver questionnaires to households nationwide beginning Monday.

The importance of census data goes beyond population count and how $4 trillion in federal dollars will be divvied up over the next 10 years. It tells a community where it's heading, and, perhaps, how to counter any negative trends, said one demographics expert.

"Beyond the federal dollars coming back and stuff, it tells you how many people there are in your community, whether you're growing, where they're living, their age, their gender, their race," said Doug Bachtel, a University of Georgia demographer and a sociology professor.

Augusta and Aiken officials say the data are useful for long-term planning.

"Basically we use the census data first of all to evaluate the demographics of the community as they exist now and as they existed in the past," said Paul DeCamp, Augusta-Richmond County's planning director. "We use those trends to make projections, especially about specific populations and employment growth in the city."

Statistics can also show a county which areas are growing most quickly and where new roads and infrastructure are needed.

DeCamp said projects such as the construction of Jimmy Dyess Parkway, the widening of Tobacco Road and, most recently, the widening of Interstate 20 were initiated because of census findings.

"Those kinds of transportation projects have all come about because at different times in the past we forecast employment or population growth in those areas," he said.

The information also is used to develop plans that outline needs of the area, such as new fire and water districts, said Stephen Strohminger, Aiken County's planning director.

Census data have limitations because of their shelf life, said Walter Sprouse, the director of the Development Authority of Richmond County.

The authority uses information about education levels, median income and housing units to lure new companies to Augusta. But because yearly census data take time to compile, the organization sometimes must buy information from private research companies, Sprouse said.

"In this age of instant information, we have to go with what is going to help us the most," he said.

Though it's an important economic development tool, one of the most important aspects of census data is the picture they help paint of a community, Bachtel said.

Take Richmond County.

It has the lowest percentage of people married in the three-county area, at 40 percent. Because studies show married households are the most stable economically, the declining number of such families helps explain why Augusta has the area's lowest median household income, a main reason it also has the highest poverty level, at 24 percent, Bachtel said.

"Here's what the poverty problem is in Richmond County. It's intergenerational poverty," he said. "Like if you're born poor, you're going to be poor. And you grow up in these families that don't stress education and getting a job skill and staying in school and stuff like that. It just passes down, and as a result, it becomes the norm.

"The research shows that people who grow up in these families, they tend to be exactly the same as the households they grew up in."

At the other end of the spectrum, Columbia County has the area's highest median household income and the lowest poverty rate, at 5.7 percent.

Bachtel said he doesn't expect the 2010 census numbers to show any major changes in the local trends.

"These things are not going to change very rapidly. It takes decades, but it can be done," he said.

Patsy Hollis wasn't thinking about trends when she said her vows Wednesday. She wasn't surprised when told that fewer people are getting married, noting that she knows many people who have chosen to just live together. That, however, wasn't for her.

"Marriage is very important to me," said Hollis, 22. "I think we both like the old traditions."

AUGUSTA-RICHMOND COUNTY CENSUS DATA

Data compiled from the past two censuses --1990 and 2000 -- and 2008 American Community Survey.

* indicates estimates

COLUMBIA COUNTY CENSUS DATA

Data compiled from the past two censuses --1990 and 2000 -- and 2008 American Community Survey.

* indicates estimates

AIKEN COUNTY CENSUS DATA

Data compiled from the past two censuses --1990 and 2000 -- and 2008 American Community Survey. * indicates estimates

Source: Census bureau