Calhoun County, Illinois

Calhoun County is a located in the  of. As of the, the population is 5,084, and the population was 5,163 at the 2005 unofficial census. The is, and the county is home to the , in. Calhoun County was organized in, and was named for , , and proponent of. It is Part of The St. Louis Metropolitan area.

Geography
According to the, the county has a total area of 735 (284 ). 657 km² (254 sq mi) of it is land and 77 km² (30 sq mi) of it (10.53%) is water.

Calhoun County is a narrow finger of mostly high ground located between the and the. It is serviced by two state operated free ferry boats crossing the Illinois River (the Brussels Ferry and the Kampsville ferry) and two privately operated toll ferry boats crossing the Mississippi River into Missouri (the Winfield ferry and the Golden Eagle ferry). There is also one bridge that spans the Illinois River at Hardin as well as land routes to the north into bordering Pike County.

The county had many prosperous farms and orchards at a time when transportation was mainly by river. It is very popular with sight seers in the fall due to the natural beauty of the Illinois River valley and its proximity to the. Calhoun county was added to St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area in 2003 along with Bond and Macoupin counties in Illinois, and in Missouri, Washington County.

Adjacent Counties

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

Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 5,084 people, 2,046 households, and 1,438 families residing in the county. The was 8/km² (20/sq mi). There were 2,681 housing units at an average density of 4/km² (11/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 98.80%, 0.04% or , 0.31% , 0.18% , 0.16% from , and 0.51% from two or more races. 0.63% of the population were or  of any race.

There were 2,046 households out of which 29.00% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.80% were living together, 5.70% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.70% were non-families. 26.50% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.40% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 2.98.

In the county the population was spread out with 22.90% under the age of 18, 7.60% from 18 to 24, 25.90% from 25 to 44, 24.40% 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 100.80 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.40 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $34,375, and the median income for a family was $43,107. Males had a median income of $32,281 versus $20,943 for females. The for the county was $16,785. About 7.30% of families and 9.00% of the population were below the, including 9.10% of those under age 18 and 9.80% of those age 65 or over.