Orange County, New York

Orange County is a located in the  of. At the northern reaches of the, it sits in the state's scenic of the. Its name is in honor of, who was greatly esteemed by the original settlers of the region. As of the, the population was 341,367. The is. The of New York is located in Orange County, in.

History
Orange County was one of the first twelve counties established by the in. Its boundaries at that time included present-day, which split from Orange County in.

It is best known as the location of:
 * The at
 * , America's oldest winery, in
 * The birthplace of in
 * , the popular custom motorcycle shop featured on television series  (it is commonly mistaken that the shop is based in the more well-known )
 * , the home and birthplace of Cheese
 * The in Goshen
 * The  newspaper, the first daily in the country, in
 * , in Middletown
 * The in Middletown

Geography
Orange County is in southeastern New York State, directly north of the -New York border, west of the, east of the and northwest of. It borders the New York counties of, , , , , and , as well as and  counties in New Jersey and  in.

Orange County is where the Great Valley of the Appalachians finally opens up and ends. The western corner is set off by the. The area along the Rockland County border (within and  s) and south of Newburgh is part of the. The land in between is the valley of the. In the southern portion of the county the Wallkill valley expands into a wide glacial lake bed known as the for its fertility.

The highest point is, at 1,664 (507 ) above sea level. The lowest is sea level along the Hudson.

According to the, the county has a total area of 2,172 (839 ), with 2,114 km² (816 sq mi) as land and 58 km² (22 sq mi) as water.

Transportation
The county is served by, located two miles west of. The airport serves, , , , and. Ground transportation within Orange County is provided primarily by, , and.

Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 341,367 people, 114,788 households, and 84,483 families residing in the county. The was 161/km² (418/sq mi). There were 122,754 housing units at an average density of 58/km² (150/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 83.70%, 8.09% or , 0.35% , 1.51% , 0.04% , 4.09% from , and 2.23% from two or more races. 11.64% of the population were or  of any race. 9.23% reported speaking at home, 3.29%, and 1.20%.

By 2005 census estimates placed Orange County's non-Hispanic white population at 72.4%. African Americans were now 10.2% of the population. Native Americans were at 0.4%, a change that was less than can be measured by the precision of the 2005 estimates being used for these figures. Asians were up to 2.2% of the population. Latinos had however made the largest gain as an increase in their percentage of the population, and now constituted 14.9% of the counties population.

There were 114,788 households out of which 39.60% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.90% were living together, 11.40% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.40% were non-families. 21.50% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.50% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.85 and the average family size was 3.35.

In the county the population was spread out with 29.00% under the age of 18, 8.70% from 18 to 24, 30.00% from 25 to 44, 21.90% from 45 to 64, and 10.30% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 100.30 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.50 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $52,058, and the median income for a family was $60,355. Males had a median income of $42,363 versus $30,821 for females. The for the county was $21,597. About 7.60% of families and 10.50% of the population were below the, including 14.80% of those under age 18 and 8.00% of those age 65 or over.

Despite its rural roots, Orange County is considered to be among the fastest growing suburb/exurb regions of the New York City Metropolitan Area.

Places

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 * Labels in parentheses refer to official political designation.
 * Labels in parentheses refer to official political designation.