Kanawha County, West Virginia

Kanawha County (pronounced ka-gnaw') is a located in the  of  taking its name from the Native term, Kanawha: "place of white stone". As of 2000, the population was 200,072. Its is. Kanawha County is the most populous county in the state of West Virginia.

During, Kanawha County became known for its. wanted to purge material they considered unsuitable from school textbooks, leading to writing his  winning editorials.

Kanawha County is part of the, with a 2004 population estimate of 307,763 people.

Geography
According to the, the county has a total area of 2,359 (911 ). 2,339 km² (903 sq mi) of it is land and 20 km² (8 sq mi) of it (0.87%) is water.

Adjacent Counties

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Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 200,073 people, 86,226 households, and 55,960 families residing in the county. The was 86/km² (222/sq mi). There were 93,788 housing units at an average density of 40/km² (104/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 90.46%, 6.97% or , 0.21% , 0.85% , 0.02% , 0.21% from , and 1.27% from two or more races. 0.59% of the population were or  of any race.

There were 86,226 households out of which 26.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.00% were living together, 12.30% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.10% were non-families. 30.80% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.50% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.28 and the average family size was 2.84.

In the county, the population was spread out with 21.30% under the age of 18, 8.40% from 18 to 24, 28.10% from 25 to 44, 25.60% from 45 to 64, and 16.50% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 90.70 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.10 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $33,766, and the median income for a family was $42,568. Males had a median income of $33,842 versus $24,188 for females. The for the county was $20,354. About 11.20% of families and 14.40% of the population were below the, including 20.60% of those under age 18 and 10.50% of those age 65 or over.

Book banning
On, the English Language Arts Textbook Committee of Kanawha County recommended 325 books and textbooks to the school board for use in Kanawha elementary schools. One of the school board members, a hard-line conservative, rejected the books as offensive and asked the county for support. The controversy that followed caused violent protests and school closings through 1975.