Duval County, Florida

Duval County is a located in the  of. As of 2000, the population was 778,879. The 2005 estimate for the county is 826,436. Its is.

History
Duval County was created in from. It was named for,  of Florida from  to. When Duval County was created it covered a massive area, from the on the west to the Atlantic Ocean on the east, north of a line from the mouth of the Suwannee River to  on the. and Counties were created out of parts of Duval County in 1824. was created from part of Duval County in 1858. Part of St. Johns County south and east of the lower reaches of the St. Johns River was transferred to Duval County in the 1840s.

On October 1, 1968, the government of Duval County was consolidated with the government of the City of, although the Duval County cities of , , , and are not included in the corporate limits of Jacksonville, and maintain their own municipal governments. In the early 1990s these three beach cities considered separating from Duval and forming Ocean County, an idea that had been discussed since consolidation, but after the 1995 election of Jacksonville mayor, a resident and former Mayor of Neptune Beach, the idea was dropped.

Geography
According to the, the county has a total area of 2,378 (918 ). 2,004 km² (774 sq mi) of it is land and 374 km² (145 sq mi) of it is water, much of it in the. The total area is 15.74% water. The topography is coastal plain; however there are some rolling hills.

Adjacent Counties

 * - north
 * - southeast
 * - southwest
 * - west

Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 778,879 people, 303,747 households, and 201,688 families residing in the county. The was 389/km² (1,007/sq mi). There were 329,778 housing units at an average density of 165/km² (426/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 65.80%, 27.83% or , 0.33% , 2.71% , 0.06% , 1.31% from , and 1.96% from two or more races. 4.10% of the population were or  of any race. 90.7% spoke, 4.1% and 1.0%  as their first language.

There were 303,747 households out of which 33.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.50% were living together, 15.60% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.60% were non-families. 26.50% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.80% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.51 and the average family size was 3.06.

In the county the population was spread out with 26.30% under the age of 18, 9.60% from 18 to 24, 32.40% from 25 to 44, 21.20% from 45 to 64, and 10.50% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 94.20 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.90 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $40,703, and the median income for a family was $47,689. Males had a median income of $32,954 versus $26,015 for females. The for the county was $20,753. About 9.20% of families and 11.90% of the population were below the, including 16.40% of those under age 18 and 11.60% of those age 65 or over.

According to the city's website, as of October 2004, there were 515,202 registered voters in Duval County.

Politics
In, Duval county is perhaps the largest reliably Republican county in the state.

Government links

 * City of Jacksonville official website of City of /Duval County

Elected Constitutional Offices

 * Duval County Property Appraiser
 * Duval County Supervisor of Elections
 * Duval County Tax Collector
 * Jacksonville Sheriff's Office

Special districts

 * Duval County Public Schools
 * St. Johns River Water Management District
 * St. Johns River Water Management District

Judicial branch

 * Duval County Clerk of Courts
 * Public Defender, 4th Judicial Circuit of Florida serving Duval,, and Counties
 * Office of the State Attorney, 4th Judicial Circuit of Florida
 * Circuit and County Court, 4th Judicial Circuit of Florida

Tourism

 * Jacksonville and the Beaches Convention and Visitors' Bureau