Lake County, Colorado

Lake County is one of the of the  of the. The highest point in Colorado and the entire is the summit of  in Lake County at 4401 meters (14,440 feet) elevation. The county population was 7,812 at. The is. The comprises  and Lake County.

History
Lake County was one of the original 17 counties created by the Colorado legislature on,. As originally defined, Lake County included a large portion of western Colorado to the south and west of its present boundaries. It was named for the Twin Lakes in the area.

Lake County slowly lost territory over the succeeding decades, losing land in its southeast to in  and  in ; in its southwest to  in  and  in, and in its west to  and  counties in.

With its many reductions in size, Lake Counie's designated county seat also changed multiple times within just a few years, residing successively in (from ),  (from ),  (from ), and  (from ).

By 1878, Lake County had been reduced to an area including only present-day Lake and counties. On, , the Colorado legislature renamed Lake County Carbonate County, although this designation name only lasted for two days, until Chaffee County was split off from Carbonate's southern section on and the remaining northern portion was redesignated Lake County with its current county seat of Leadville.

Geography
According to the, the county has a total area of 994 (384 ). 976 km² (377 sq mi) of it is land and 18 km² (7 sq mi) of it (1.83%) is water.

Adjacent Counties

 * - north
 * - northeast
 * - east
 * - south
 * - west

Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 7,812 people, 2,977 households, and 1,914 families residing in the county. The was 8/km² (21/sq mi). There were 3,913 housing units at an average density of 4/km² (10/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 77.60%, 0.18% or , 1.25% , 0.31% , 0.05% , 17.99% from , and 2.62% from two or more races. 36.14% of the population were or  of any race.

There were 2,977 households out of which 33.90% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.70% were living together, 8.40% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.70% were non-families. 26.30% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.60% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.59 and the average family size was 3.15.

In the county the population was spread out with 26.90% under the age of 18, 12.80% from 18 to 24, 33.10% from 25 to 44, 20.60% from 45 to 64, and 6.60% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females there were 115.80 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 116.70 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $37,691, and the median income for a family was $41,652. Males had a median income of $30,977 versus $24,415 for females. The for the county was $18,524. About 9.50% of families and 12.90% of the population were below the, including 15.60% of those under age 18 and 6.30% of those age 65 or over.