Itasca County, Minnesota

Itasca County is a located in the  of. It is named after, which is in turn a shortened version the Latin words veritas caput, meaning true head, a reference to the source of the. As of 2000, the population was 43,992. Its is. Portions of the and  s are in the county.

History
The county (originally much larger) was first formed in 1849, upon the creation of, from the Minnesota portion of.

Geography
According to the, the county has a total area of 7,583 (2,928 ). 6,902 km² (2,665 sq mi) of it is land and 680 km² (263 sq mi) of it (8.97%) is water.

Adjacent counties

 * (north)
 * (east)
 * (south)
 * (southwest)
 * (west)

Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 43,992 people, 17,789 households, and 12,381 families residing in the county. The was 6/km² (16/sq mi). There were 24,528 housing units at an average density of 4/km² (9/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 94.64%, 0.16% or , 3.40% , 0.27% , 0.02% , 0.16% from , and 1.34% from two or more races. 0.60% of the population were or  of any race. 25.6% were of, 13.8% , 7.7% , 7.2% , 6.2% , 5.0% or American and 5.0%  ancestry.

There were 17,789 households out of which 29.20% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.30% were living together, 7.60% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.40% were non-families. 26.00% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.20% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.43 and the average family size was 2.91.

In the county the population was spread out with 24.40% under the age of 18, 7.60% from 18 to 24, 24.40% from 25 to 44, 26.70% from 45 to 64, and 16.80% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there were 99.70 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.20 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $36,234, and the median income for a family was $44,025. Males had a median income of $37,066 versus $22,327 for females. The for the county was $17,717. About 7.70% of families and 10.60% of the population were below the, including 13.60% of those under age 18 and 8.80% of those age 65 or over.