El Paso County, Colorado

El Paso County is the most populous of the of the  of the. The estimates that the county population was 576,884 in 2006, a 11.60% increase since. The is, the second most populous city in. The comprises El Paso County and.

El Paso County is located in. Since its creation in, El Paso County has voted for the Republican presidential candidate in every presidential election.

In 2004, the voters of Colorado Springs and El Paso County established the (PPRTA) and adopted a 1% sales tax dedicated to improving the region's transportation infrastructure. Together with state funding for COSMIX (2007 completion) and the I-25 interchange with Highway 16 (2008 completion), significant progress has been made since 2003 in addressing the transportation needs of the area.

History
El Paso County was one of the original 17 counties created by the Colorado legislature on,. It was given the Spanish name of "the pass", referring to the Ute Pass west of Colorado Springs. Part of its western territory was broken off to create in. Originally based in (now part of, not today's  between  and ), El Paso County's county seat was moved to Colorado Springs in.

Geography
According to the, the county has a total area of 5,516 (2,130 ). 5,507 km² (2,126 sq mi) of it is land and 8 km² (3 sq mi) of it (0.15%) is water.

Adjacent Counties

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Major Highways

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 * [[Image:US 24.svg|20px]]
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 * [[Image:Colorado_94.svg|20px]]
 * [[Image:Colorado_115.svg|20px]]

Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 516,929 people, 192,409 households, and 133,916 families residing in the county. The was 94/km² (243/sq mi). There were 202,428 housing units at an average density of 37/km² (95/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 81.19%, 6.51% or , 0.91% , 2.53% , 0.24% , 4.70% from , and 3.91% from two or more races. 11.30% of the population were or  of any race.

There were 192,409 households out of which 36.70% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.60% were living together, 10.20% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.40% were non-families. 23.90% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.10% 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 3.11.

In the county the population was spread out with 27.60% under the age of 18, 10.50% from 18 to 24, 32.50% from 25 to 44, 20.70% from 45 to 64, and 8.70% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 100.90 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.80 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $46,844, and the median income for a family was $53,995. Males had a median income of $35,940 versus $26,252 for females. The for the county was $22,005. About 5.70% of families and 8.00% of the population were below the, including 10.00% of those under age 18 and 6.90% of those age 65 or over.

Government
El Paso County is governed by a Board of County Commissioners. Its current members are Wayne Williams,, , , and.

El Paso County commissioners are expecting a projected $7.5 million shortfall in the 2008 budget.

Cities and towns

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