Monroe County, Illinois

Monroe County is a located in the  of. Monroe County is part of the. As of 2000, the population was 27,619. Its is. Its largest city is.

Geography
According to the, the county has a total area of 1,030 (398 ). 1,006 km² (388 sq mi) of it is land and 24 km² (9 sq mi) of it (2.37%) is water.

The western part of the county on the is part of the  floodplain, while the eastern portion of the county is relatively flat and was originally. The transition zone between has high of  and  and has distinctive  topography with numerous, , and.

Adjacent Counties

 * - northeast
 * - southeast
 * - south
 * - west
 * - northwest

History
Monroe County was formed in out of  and. It was named in honor of, who had just served as and who was elected  later that same year. It's original county seat was Harrisonville (Located to the west of the present village of ) until 1825.

Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 27,619 people, 10,275 households, and 7,778 families residing in the county. The was 27/km² (71/sq mi). There were 10,749 housing units at an average density of 11/km² (28/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 98.77%, 0.05% or , 0.19% , 0.31% , 0.18% from , and 0.50% from two or more races. 0.74% of the population were or  of any race.

There were 10,275 households out of which 37.70% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 65.30% were living together, 7.30% had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.30% were non-families. 21.30% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.60% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.65 and the average family size was 3.09.

In the county the population was spread out with 26.40% under the age of 18, 7.40% from 18 to 24, 30.60% from 25 to 44, 22.20% from 45 to 64, and 13.40% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 96.80 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.60 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $55,320, and the median income for a family was $62,397. Males had a median income of $41,243 versus $27,130 for females. The for the county was $22,954. About 2.30% of families and 3.40% of the population were below the, including 2.80% of those under age 18 and 7.30% of those age 65 or over.