Pope County, Illinois

Pope County is a located in the  of. As of, the population is 4,413. Its is.

The county was organized in 1816 from portions of and  and named after, a Secretary of the.

History
First permanent settlement in 1798 at the modern-day site of, operating as a ferry point across the. Pope County was formed in from portions of Gallatin & Johnson Counties.

Geography
The entire county is hilly and during rainy weather rivulets cascade down the hills in the park forming of varying sizes and heights. The county contains, one of many state parks in the , and is part of the. It is bordered to the south and east by the, which marks the state's border with.

According to the, the county has a total area of 970 (375 ). 961 km² (371 sq mi) of it is land and 10 km² (4 sq mi) of it (1.01%) is water.

Adjacent Counties

 * - north
 * - east
 * - east
 * - west
 * - west
 * - northwest

Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 4,413 people, 1,769 households, and 1,220 families residing in the county. The was 5/km² (12/sq mi). There were 2,351 housing units at an average density of 2/km² (6/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 93.29%, 3.76% or , 0.79% , 0.27% , 0.45% from , and 1.43% from two or more races. 0.91% of the population were or  of any race.

There were 1,769 households out of which 27.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.80% were living together, 7.60% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.00% were non-families. 27.90% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.30% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.33 and the average family size was 2.84.

In the county the population was spread out with 21.50% under the age of 18, 10.20% from 18 to 24, 23.80% from 25 to 44, 26.70% from 45 to 64, and 17.70% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there were 102.60 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.20 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $30,048, and the median income for a family was $37,860. Males had a median income of $33,717 versus $20,074 for females. The for the county was $16,440. About 9.80% of families and 18.20% of the population were below the, including 21.40% of those under age 18 and 8.40% of those age 65 or over.