Clay County, Illinois

Clay County is a located in the  of, and determined by the  to include the  in. As of, the population was 14,560.

Clay County was formed in out of portions of,  and  Its name is in honor of , famous American statesman, member of the  from  and  in the 19th century. Its is.

Geography
According to the, the county has a total area of 1,217 (470 ). 1,215 km² (469 sq mi) of it is land and 2 km² (1 sq mi) of it (0.13%) is water.

Adjacent Counties

 * - northeast
 * - east
 * - south
 * - west
 * - northwest
 * - northwest

Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 14,560 people, 5,839 households, and 4,005 families residing in the county. The was 12/km² (31/sq mi). There were 6,394 housing units at an average density of 5/km² (14/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 98.52%, 0.11% or , 0.23% , 0.52% , 0.01% , 0.21% from , and 0.40% from two or more races. 0.60% of the population were or  of any race.

There were 5,839 households out of which 30.60% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.40% were living together, 8.60% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.40% were non-families. 27.90% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.80% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.41 and the average family size was 2.94.

In the county the population was spread out with 23.90% under the age of 18, 8.00% from 18 to 24, 25.90% from 25 to 44, 23.00% from 45 to 64, and 19.20% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 92.30 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.10 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $30,599, and the median income for a family was $36,675. Males had a median income of $27,813 versus $20,616 for females. The for the county was $15,771. About 9.00% of families and 11.80% of the population were below the, including 12.90% of those under age 18 and 12.30% of those age 65 or over.