Bent County, Colorado

Bent County is one of the of the  of the. The county is named in honor of frontier trader. The county population was 5,998 at. The is.

History
Bent County was created by the Colorado legislature on, , when , created only four years earlier, was dissolved and divided between Bent and counties. At the time of its creation, it included a large portion of southeastern Colorado. In, Bent County acquired its current borders when it lost much of its territory to the newly created , , , , and  counties.

Geography
According to the, the county has a total area of 3,991 (1,541 ). 3,921 km² (1,514 sq mi) of it is land and 70 km² (27 sq mi) of it (1.77%) is water.

Adjacent Counties

 * - north
 * - east
 * - southeast
 * - southwest
 * - west

Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 5,998 people, 2,003 households, and 1,388 families residing in the county. The was 2/km² (4/sq mi). There were 2,366 housing units at an average density of 1/km² (2/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 79.53%, 3.65% or , 2.23% , 0.57% , 10.25% from , and 3.77% from two or more races. 30.24% of the population were or  of any race.

There were 2,003 households out of which 32.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.50% were living together, 11.40% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.70% were non-families. 27.20% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.20% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.53 and the average family size was 3.07.

In the county the population was spread out with 23.80% under the age of 18, 9.30% from 18 to 24, 29.20% from 25 to 44, 21.80% from 45 to 64, and 15.90% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 129.00 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 138.70 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $28,125, and the median income for a family was $34,096. Males had a median income of $22,755 versus $24,261 for females. The for the county was $13,567. About 16.60% of families and 19.50% of the population were below the, including 27.40% of those under age 18 and 13.00% of those age 65 or over.