Giles County, Virginia

Giles County is a located in the  &mdash; officially, "" &mdash; of. As of the, the population was 16,657. Its is.

Giles County is the location of, one of only two natural fresh water lakes in Virginia. The Lake drains into Little Stony Creek, which passes over "The Cascades", a spectacular waterfall, before reaching the.

History
Giles County was established in from, , , and  counties. The county is named for who was born in  in 1762. Giles became a lawyer and from there was elected to the where he served from 1790 to 1815. He also served on the from 1816 to 1822. In 1827, he was elected Governor. In all, he served his nation and state around a total of forty years.

Geography
According to the, the county has a total area of 933 (360 ). 925 km² (357 mi²) of it is land and 8 km² (3 mi²) of it (0.85%) is water.

Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 16,657 people, 6,994 households, and 4,888 families residing in the county. The was 18/km² (47/mi²). There were 7,732 housing units at an average density of 8/km² (22/mi²). The racial makeup of the county was 97.41%, 1.58% or , 0.14% , 0.19% , 0.16% from , and 0.53% from two or more races. 0.63% of the population were or  of any race.

There were 6,994 households out of which 28.10% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.10% were living together, 9.70% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.10% were non-families. 26.60% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.80% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.37 and the average family size was 2.85.

In the county, the population was spread out with 22.00% under the age of 18, 6.80% from 18 to 24, 28.40% from 25 to 44, 26.10% from 45 to 64, and 16.70% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 95.60 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.20 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $34,927, and the median income for a family was $42,089. Males had a median income of $32,075 versus $22,969 for females. The for the county was $18,396. About 6.60% of families and 9.50% of the population were below the, including 11.60% of those under age 18 and 10.50% of those age 65 or over.