Chenango County, New York


 *  For other places named "Chenango," see .

Chenango County is a located in the  of. As of the, the population was 51,401. Its name is from an word meaning "large bull-thistle." Its is.

History
When counties were established in New York State in 1683, the present Chenango County was part of. This was an enormous county, including the northern part of New York State as well as all of the present State of and, in theory, extending westward to the. This county was reduced in size on, , by the creation of , and further on , , by the creation of , both containing territory now in Vermont.

On, , what was left of Albany County was split into three parts, one remaining under the name Albany County. One of the other pieces,, contained the western portion (and thus, since no western boundary was specified, theoretically still extended west to the Pacific). The eastern boundary of Tryon County was approximately five miles west of the present city of, and the county included the western part of the and the area west of the West Branch of the. The area then designated as Tryon County now includes 37 counties of New York State. The county was named for, colonial governor of New York.

In the years prior to 1776, most of the Loyalists in Tryon County fled to. In 1784, following the peace treaty that ended the, the name of Tryon County was changed to in honor of the general, , who had captured several places in Canada and died attempting to capture the city of , replacing the name of the hated British governor.

In 1789, Montgomery County was reduced in size by the splitting off of. The actual area split off from Montgomery County was much larger than the present county, also including the present, , , , , , , , , , , , and part of and.

and were two of three counties split off from Montgomery County (the other being ) in 1791.

Chenango County was formed on, from 1610 sqmi of Tioga and Herkimer Counties.

On, , 70 sqmi of Chenango County was partitioned to expand , including the communities of , and.

On, , 650 sqmi of Chenango County was partitioned to produce. This produced Chenango County as it exists today.

Geography
Chenango County is in the approximate center of the state, west of, north of , and southeast of. The county is considered to be in the region of New York State.

According to the, the county has a total area of 2,328 (899 ). 2,316 km² (894 sq mi) of it is land and 11 km² (4 sq mi) of it (0.48%) is water.

The, a tributary of the flows southward through the county.

Adjacent Counties

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Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 51,401 people, 19,926 households, and 13,549 families residing in the county. The was 22/km² (58/sq mi). There were 23,890 housing units at an average density of 10/km² (27/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 97.65%, 0.82% or , 0.27% , 0.28% , 0.02% , 0.22% from , and 0.74% from two or more races. 1.07% of the population were or  of any race.

There were 19,926 households out of which 32.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.10% were living together, 9.80% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.00% were non-families. 26.10% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.40% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.52 and the average family size was 3.01.

In the county the population was spread out with 26.20% under the age of 18, 7.00% from 18 to 24, 27.50% from 25 to 44, 24.40% from 45 to 64, and 14.90% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 97.00 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.70 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $33,679, and the median income for a family was $39,711. Males had a median income of $30,363 versus $22,429 for females. The for the county was $16,427. About 10.70% of families and 14.40% of the population were below the, including 19.50% of those under age 18 and 8.70% of those age 65 or over.

Additional county information
has a branch in Norwich.

Cities, Towns, and Villages

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 * ==> Labels in parentheses refer to official designation.

Note: in this context "" refers to a political subdivision synonymous with rather than a small city.

The towns in northern Chenango County originated from the ceeded by the  to the State of New York.