Wake County, North Carolina

Wake County is a located in the  of. As of 2007, the population was 817,429. Its is, also the state capital.

History
The county was formed in from parts of, , and. It was named for Margaret Wake, wife of Governor.

In parts of Wake County and Orange County were combined to form. In Cedar Fork Township of Wake County was transferred to Durham County and became Carr Township.

Law and government
Wake County is a member of the regional. The county is governed by a seven-member board of County Commissioners. 

Politics
Wake County is the second most heavily populated county in, with, as of July 2005, a population of approximately 750,000. Although presidential candidates have only won the county in three of the last 12 elections (Kennedy in 1960, Johnson in 1964 and Clinton in 1992), the races have almost always been close, such as in 1980, when  won by a landslide nationwide, but by a mere 1% in Wake County. Recently,  won the county in 2000 with 53% and defeated  in 2004 by a slim 51% to 49%.

Recently, statewide Democrats have fared well here; in the 1998 Senate Race, Democrat  won in Wake County, which helped him in his defeat of incumbent Republican. In 2000 Democrat Governor won here with 55% of the vote. In 2004, Easley won again in Wake County by nearly 20%, winning with 59% to 40% for opponent. Democratic candidate for US Senate won in Wake County with 52 percent, despite losing statewide to  by the same margin. In 2002, however, Republican defeated Bowles with 55% of the vote here, and won by a large margin statewide.

Democratic voters are mainly located in the city of, while Republicans are the majority in the rural areas in the north and western parts of the county. The outskirts of Raleigh, and the cities of and  are where most of the swing voters are located.

Geography
According to the, the county has a total area of 2,220 (857 ). 2,155 km² (832 sq mi) of it is land and 66 km² (25 sq mi) of it (2.95%) is water.

Townships
The county is divided into twenty :, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and.

Adjacent Counties

 * - north
 * - northeast
 * - east
 * - southeast
 * - southwest
 * - west
 * - northwest

Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 627,846 people, 242,040 households, and 158,778 families residing in the county. The was 291/km² (755/sq mi). There were 258,953 housing units at an average density of 120/km² (311/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 72.40%, 19.72% or , 0.34% , 3.38% , 0.03% , 2.48% from , and 1.64% from two or more races. 5.41% of the population were or  of any race.

There were 242,040 households out of which 34.00% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.50% were living together, 9.80% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.40% were non-families. 25.70% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.51 and the average family size was 3.06.

In the county the population was spread out with 25.10% under the age of 18, 10.70% from 18 to 24, 36.50% from 25 to 44, 20.40% from 45 to 64, and 7.40% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 98.40 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.50 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $54,988, and the median income for a family was $67,149. Males had a median income of $44,472 versus $31,579 for females. The for the county was $27,004. About 4.90% of families and 7.80% of the population were below the, including 8.60% of those under age 18 and 8.90% of those age 65 or over.

Municipalities
Municipalities, with populations as of July 2006. Municipalities in italics overlap county borders. These population figures reflect only the part of those municipalities that lie within Wake County.
 * , 28,830
 * , 122,139
 * , 12,913
 * , 23,507
 * , 17,165
 * , 8,671
 * , 13,501
 * , 352,919
 * , 1,792
 * , 22,628
 * , 5,421
 * , 4,781