Jefferson County, Washington

Jefferson County is a located in the  of  and named after. As of 2000, the population was 25,953. The county seat is at, which is also the county's only incorporated city.

Jefferson County was formed out of on, , by the legislature of , and included the northern 12,571 km² (4,854 sq mi) portion of the. On April 26, 1854 the legislature of created  from the northwestern 6,916 km² (2,670 sq mi) portion of this original area.

The connects Jefferson County to. The - route of the connects the county to  in.

Geography
According to the, the county has a total area of 5,655 (2,184 ). 4,699 km² (1,814 sq mi) of it is land and 956 km² (369 sq mi) of it (16.91%) is water.

The county is split in three parts by its landforms:
 * Eastern Jefferson County along the, , and
 * Central Jefferson County, which is uninhabited and lies in the within  and
 * Western Jefferson County, along the.

Because of the, there is no road lying entirely within Jefferson County that connects the eastern and western parts. The most direct land route between the two ends of the county involves a drive of approximately 100 miles along through neighbouring. The also block the damp s, which make the climate very much more wet in the West than the so-called Eastern "" in the. The original formation of Jefferson County during a time when the  was poorly explored is now generally recognized as a geographical error, but an error which cannot be conveniently rectified.

Geographic features

 * , the highest point in Jefferson county
 * , the highest point in Jefferson county
 * , the highest point in Jefferson county
 * , the highest point in Jefferson county

Adjacent counties

 * - northeast
 * - southeast
 * - south/southeast
 * - south/southwest
 * - northwest

Also shares northern border with (across the ).

Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 25,953 people, 11,645 households, and 7,580 families residing in the county. The was 6/km² (14/sq mi). There were 14,144 housing units at an average density of 3/km² (8/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 92.17%, 0.42% or , 2.31% , 1.19% , 0.13% , 0.76% from , and 3.02% from two or more races. 2.06% of the population were or  of any race. 17.4% were of, 14.8% , 9.9% and 7.5%  ancestry according to Census 2000. 97.1% spoke and 1.0%  as their first language.

There were 11,645 households out of which 23.20% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.60% were living together, 8.20% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.90% were non-families. 28.50% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.70% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.21 and the average family size was 2.67.

In the county, the population was spread out with 19.80% under the age of 18, 5.00% from 18 to 24, 21.60% from 25 to 44, 32.50% from 45 to 64, and 21.10% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 47 years. For every 100 females there were 95.80 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.40 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $37,869, and the median income for a family was $45,415. Males had a median income of $37,210 versus $25,831 for females. The for the county was $22,211. About 7.20% of families and 11.30% of the population were below the, including 16.60% of those under age 18 and 6.00% of those age 65 or over.

Politics
Jefferson County is a staunchly area, with even rural areas giving significant margins to  against  in the.

The communities in the Eastern and Western halves of Jefferson County tend to not mingle much, because of the. The communities also differ in amount and sources of family income, and population size and density, with the West being more dependent on, somewhat less prosperous, and having fewer people for roughly the same area. Port Townsend, located in the relatively populous East is gradually developing into a retirement community. Areas of East Jefferson County located south of Port Townsend remain largely rural and can be divided into two parts, those communities located on the Hood Canal and those on the Admiralty Inlet. Because of persistent differences in local self-interest, the two sides of the county regularly experience political friction. Perennial discussions and attempts to separate the West half from the East gained little support during the because of the perception that less prosperous West is subsidised by the East from which it would secede, leaving it worse rather than better-off, and giving adjoining counties little reason to wish to annex the West.

County seat casts a significant number of votes, and voted for John Kerry by a margin of over 3-to-1. Areas outside of Port Townsend (such as ) gave Kerry 2-to-1 victory margins. Democrats also do well in the small towns of northern Jefferson County, with strong Democratic leans in, , , and , as well as in the towns just southeast of Port Townsend (, , , and ). Democrats also perform strongly in the sparsely-populated western part of the county, where much of the population is Native American.

Republicans tend to win small victories in several parties of the county, such as the sparsely-populated area around. Although it has trended Democratic in recent years, &mdash; an affluent area that casts a notable number of votes &mdash; still has a Republican lean (although the north part of Port Ludlow has become a marginally Democratic area).