Kings County, California

Kings County is a located in the  of the  of. It is located in a rich agricultural region. The is. Kings County is part of the -   (MSA Code 25260). The population was 129,461 at the time of the 2000 census. However, the California Department of Finance estimates that the county's population had grown to 151,381 as of January 1, 2007.

History
Kings County was formed in from the western part of. In a triangular area of 118 sqmi was taken from Fresno County and added to Kings County []

The county derives its name from the, which, according to Padre Muñoz' diary of the Moraga Expedition of , was discovered in by an exploring expedition and named Rio de los Santos Reyes (River of the Holy Kings).

Geography
According to the, the county has a total area of 3,604 (1,391 ). 3,603 km² (1,391 sq mi) of it is land and 1 km² (0 sq mi) of it (0.04%) is water.

Kings County is bordered on the north and northwest by, on the east by , on the south by and a small part of  and on the west by.

Most of the historic was within Kings County. Although reclaimed for farming late in the, it was once was considered to be the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lakes.

Adjacent Counties

 * - south
 * - east
 * - north, northwest
 * - west
 * - southwest

Major Highways

 * [[Image:I-5.svg|20px]]
 * [[Image:California 33.svg|20px]]
 * [[Image:California 41.svg|20px]]
 * [[Image:California 43.svg|20px]]
 * [[Image:California 198.svg|20px]]

Public Transportation
Kings Area Rural Transit (KART) operates regularly scheduled fixed route bus service, vanpool service for commuters and Dial-A-Ride (demand response) services throughout Kings County as well as to Fresno.

trains stop in Corcoran and Hanford.

provides inter-city bus service to and from Hanford. Connections with can be made in Visalia or Paso Robles.

Airports
is a general aviation airport located just southeast of Hanford.

Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 129,461 people, 34,418 households, and 26,983 families residing in the county. However, the California Department of Finance estimates that the population had grown to 149,758 as of July 1, 2006. The based on the 2000 census was 36/km² (93/sq mi). There were 36,563 housing units at an average density of 10/km² (26/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 53.68%, 8.30% or , 1.68% , 3.07% , 0.19% , 28.28% from , and 4.79% from two or more races. 43.61% of the population were or  of any race. 63.6% spoke, 30.9% , 1.4% , 1.4% and 1.3%  as their first language.

There were 34,418 households out of which 46.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.0% were living together, 14.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 21.6% were non-families. 17.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.18 and the average family size was 3.56.

In the county the population was spread out with 29.0% under the age of 18, 11.8% from 18 to 24, 35.0% from 25 to 44, 16.8% from 45 to 64, and 7.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females there were 134.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 148.8 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $35,749, and the median income for a family was $38,111. Males had a median income of $31,700 versus $24,772 for females. The for the county was $15,848. About 15.8% of families and 19.5% of the population were below the, including 25.9% of those under age 18 and 8.8% of those age 65 or over.

Politics
Kings is a strongly county in  and  elections. The last Democrat to win a majority in the county was in.

Kings is part of California's, which is held by Democrat. In the, Kings is part of the 30th Assembly district, which is held by Democrat , and the 16th Senate district, which is held by Democrat.