Kent County, Delaware



Kent County is a located in the central part of the  of. It is part of the. As of 2000 the population was 126,697. The is, the state capital.

History
In about the  began to settle in the valley of the  earlier known as Wolf Creek. On, , The Duke of York chartered St. Jones County, which was carved out of New Amstel/New Castle County and Hoarkill/Sussex County. St. Jones County was transferred to on, , and became part of Penn's newly chartered  Colony. Penn ordered a court town to be laid out, and the courthouse was built in. The town of Dover was finally laid out in, and became the capitol of Delaware in. In Delaware was first to ratify the, and became "the First State." Kent County was a small grain farming region in the. More recently, in the 1960's, Dover was the scene of the manufacturing of the spacesuits worn by NASA astronauts in the moon flights by, now based in the small town of. The suits, dubbed the "A7L," was first flown on the mission in October 1967, and was the suit worn by  and  on the  mission. The company still manufactures spacesuits to this day--the present-day Space Shuttle "soft" suit components (the arms and legs of the suit).


 * 1680 and 1682 information Source: NEW YORK: Atlas of Historical County Boundaries by John H. Long and Kathryn Ford Thorne.

Geography
According to the, the county has a total area of 2,072 (800 ). 1,527 km² (590 sq mi) of it is land and 545 km² (210 sq mi) of it (26.30%) is water.

Kent County, Delaware:

Adjacent Counties

 * - north
 * - northeast¹
 * - east¹
 * - east¹
 * - south
 * - southwest
 * - west
 * - west

¹ across ; no land border

Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 126,697 people, 47,224 households, and 33,623 families residing in the county. The was 83/km² (215/sq mi). There were 50,481 housing units at an average density of 33/km² (86/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 73.49%, 20.66% or , 0.64% , 1.69% , 0.04% , 1.27% from , and 2.22% from two or more races. 3.21% of the population were or  of any race. 13.3% were of, 11.3% or American, 10.9% , 10.0%  and 5.4%  ancestry according to. 92.5% spoke and 3.3%  as their first language.

There were 47,224 households out of which 35.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.90% were living together, 13.80% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.80% were non-families. 23.00% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.40% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.06.

In the county the population was spread out with 27.30% under the age of 18, 10.10% from 18 to 24, 29.80% from 25 to 44, 21.20% from 45 to 64, and 11.70% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 93.10 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.60 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $40,950, and the median income for a family was $46,504. Males had a median income of $32,660 versus $24,706 for females. The for the county was $18,662. About 8.10% of families and 10.70% of the population were below the, including 14.80% of those under age 18 and 8.80% of those age 65 or over.

Municipalities and census-designated places

 * (part of Clayton is in )
 * (a CDP as "Dover Base Housing")
 * (part of Milford is in )
 * (part of Smyrna is in )
 * (a CDP as "Dover Base Housing")
 * (part of Milford is in )
 * (part of Smyrna is in )
 * (part of Milford is in )
 * (part of Smyrna is in )
 * (part of Milford is in )
 * (part of Smyrna is in )
 * (part of Milford is in )
 * (part of Smyrna is in )
 * (part of Milford is in )
 * (part of Smyrna is in )
 * (part of Milford is in )
 * (part of Smyrna is in )
 * (part of Milford is in )
 * (part of Smyrna is in )
 * (part of Smyrna is in )
 * (part of Smyrna is in )
 * (part of Smyrna is in )
 * (part of Smyrna is in )

Trivia
Kent County, Delaware, is one of the few counties in the United States to border its namesake in another state--in this case,.