Benton County, Iowa

Benton County is a located in the  of. Its is. The county is named for, a from. It is one of the three counties that make up the. The population was 25,308 at the.

Geography
According to the, the county has a total area of 1,861 (718 ). 1,855 km² (716 sq mi) of it is land and 5 km² (2 sq mi) of it (0.29%) is water.

Adjacent counties

 * (northwest)
 * (northeast)
 * (east)
 * (south)
 * (west)

Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 25,308 people, 9,746 households, and 7,056 families residing in the county. The was 14/km² (35/sq mi). There were 10,377 housing units at an average density of 6/km² (14/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 98.84%, 0.20% or , 0.15% , 0.17% , 0.02% , 0.11% from , and 0.52% from two or more races. 0.62% of the population were or  of any race.

There were 9,746 households out of which 34.90% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.70% were living together, 6.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.6% were non-families. 23.4% 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 2.56 and the average family size was 3.04.

In the county the population was spread out with 27.4% under the age of 18, 6.8% from 18 to 24, 29.3% from 25 to 44, 21.1% from 45 to 64, and 15.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 100.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.8 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $42,427, and the median income for a family was $49,701. Males had a median income of $35,044 versus $23,978 for females. The for the county was $18,891. About 4.6% of families and 6.1% of the population were below the, including 7.2% of those under age 18 and 7.0% of those age 65 or over.