Beadle County, South Dakota

Beadle County is a located in the  of. As of, the population is 17,023. Its is.

History
Beadle County, named in honor of, was created by the   in  and formally organized in  with the appointment of three  by. The first town within Beadle County was, but Huron was named the county seat when the county commissioners first met there in July 1880.

Geography
According to the, the county has a total area of 3,276 (1,265 ). 3,260 km² (1,259 sq mi) of it is land and 16 km² (6 sq mi) of it (0.48%) is water.

Townships
The county is divided into thirty-five : Allen, Altoona, Banner, Barrett, Belle Prairie, Bonilla, Broadland, Burr Oak, Carlyle, Cavour, Clifton, Clyde, Custer, Dearborn, Fairfield, Foster, Grant, Hartland, Iowa, Kellogg, Lake Byron, Liberty, Logan, Milford, Nance, Pearl Creek, Pleasant View, Richland, Sand Creek, Theresa, Valley, Vernon, Wessington, Whiteside, Wolsey.

Major Highways

 * [[Image:US 14.svg|20px]]
 * [[Image:US 281.svg|23px]]
 * [[Image:SD 28.svg|20px]]
 * [[Image:SD 37.svg|20px]]

Adjacent Counties

 * - north
 * - northeast
 * - east
 * - southeast
 * - southwest
 * - west

Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 17,023 people, 7,210 households, and 4,535 families residing in the county. The was 5/km² (14/sq mi). There were 8,206 housing units at an average density of 3/km² (6/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 96.93%, 0.69% or , 0.95% , 0.31% , 0.02% , 0.26% from , and 0.85% from two or more races. 0.91% of the population were or  of any race. 49.9% were of, 11.7% , 6.1% , 5.8% and 5.5%  or American ancestry.

There were 7,210 households out of which 28.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.50% were living together, 7.40% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.10% were non-families. 33.10% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.00% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.30 and the average family size was 2.94.

In the county, the population was spread out with 24.70% under the age of 18, 8.30% from 18 to 24, 24.70% from 25 to 44, 23.00% from 45 to 64, and 19.40% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 96.60 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.70 males.