Morris County, New Jersey

Morris County is a located in the  of, about 25 mi (40 km) west of. As of the, the population was 470,212, and grew to 493,160 as of the Census Bureau's 2006 estimate. . It is part of the. Its is. It is the by median household income, and ranks tenth by per capita income.

History
The area of Morris County was inhabited by the prior to the coming of the Europeans.

Morris County was created on, , from portions of. The county was named for the Governor of the, Colonel. In later years (on, ) and  (on , , from portions of Sussex County) were carved out of what had been the original area of Morris County.

Geography
According to the, the county has a total area of 1,247 (481 ). 1,215 km² (469 sq mi) of it is land and 32 km² (12 sq mi) of it (2.55%) is water.

The county rises in elevation and relief from east to west, with only the more developed eastern suburbs in the valley being relatively level. The highest point is at 1,395 feet (425 m) above sea level in the in Jefferson Township; the lowest point is about 140 feet (42.6 m) in elevation, at Two Bridges, the  of the Passaic and  rivers.


 * Adjacent counties include:
 * - north
 * - northeast
 * - east
 * - east
 * - south
 * - southwest
 * - west

Government
Morris County is governed by a seven-member. The members are elected at large to serve three-year terms on a staggered basis, with either two or three seats coming up for election each year. The Freeholder Board sets policies for the operation of six super-departments, more than 30 divisions plus authorities, commissions, boards and study committees. Actual day-to-day operation of departments is supervised by the county administrator.

The Board of Chosen Freeholders has been granted broad powers by the state legislature to regulate almost all county property, finances and affairs. The Freeholder Board's duties include preparing and adopting the county budget; authorizing expenditures and bonds; appointing county officials and members to boards, commissions and authorities; passing on all claims against the county, and supervising the administration of county government.

The Freeholders are the center of legislative and administrative responsibility in Morris County and, as such, perform a dual role. As legislators they draw up and adopt a budget, and in the role of administrators they are responsible for spending the funds they have appropriated. Many of these duties in Morris County have been delegated by the Board of Chosen Freeholders to the county administrator.

As of 2007, Morris County's are Margaret Nordstrom  (Freeholder Director), John Inglesino (Freeholder Deputy Director), Douglas R. Cabana, William J. Chegwidden, Gene F. Feyl,  and Jack Schrier.

The Morris Automated Information Network, which supplies Internet service to area libraries, turned down $10,000 per year in federal funding, starting in 2004. Acceptance of the grants would have required the network to install anti-porn content filters to comply with the. As these filters excluded legitimate information &mdash; such as pages with the word "breast" in online searches regarding "breast cancer" &mdash; the network declined to accept these grants.

Another organization having the power to affect the county budget without county governmental control is the Morris County Board of Taxation, a.k.a. the Morris County Tax Board. "[T]he freeholders, and county government in general, do not have control over tax board spending.... [T]he tax board is an entity of state government, even though it submits expense vouchers to county government."

Taxation
Based on data for the 2004 tax year, Morris County had the tenth highest average federal income tax liability per return in the country Average tax liability was $15,296, representing 16.3% of.

Personal income
Morris County has the third highest median household income in the nation ($77,340). According to the County 2000 Census:
 * Median income for a household = $77,340
 * Median income for a family = $89,773
 * Median income for males = $60,165
 * Median income for females = $40,065
 * = $36,964
 * Families below the = 2.40%
 * Population below the poverty line= 3.90%
 * Under age 18 below the poverty line = 3.70%
 * Age 65 or over, below the poverty line = 5.30%

Business
Fifty-three businesses have headquarters, offices or a major facility in Morris County. These include, , , , , , , and. Major industries include finance, insurance, real estate, pharmaceuticals, health services, research and development, and technology. There are 13,000 acres (53 km²) set aside for 28 county parks. Four county golf courses and 16 public and private courses are in Morris.

Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 470,212 people, 169,711 households, and 124,907 families residing in the county. The was 387/km² (1,003/sq mi). There were 174,379 housing units at an average density of 144/km² (372/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 87.20%, 2.80% or , 0.12% , 6.26% , 0.04% , 2.01% from , and 1.56% from two or more races. 7.79% of the population were or  of any race. 21.5% were of, 14.5% , 10.6% , 5.5% and 5.5%  ancestry according to.

In 2005 78.5% of Morris County's population was non-Hispanic whites. African Americans constituted 3.1% of the population. 8.0% of the population was Asian. 1.0% of the population reported two or more races. These figures did not include any people in the category "Some other race". Latinos were 9.7% of the population, all except 0.5% of whom classified as white. .

In 2000 There were 169,711 households out of which 35.40% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.80% were living together, 7.90% 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 7.30% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.72 and the average family size was 3.18.

In the county the population was spread out with 24.80% under the age of 18, 6.40% from 18 to 24, 31.90% from 25 to 44, 25.30% from 45 to 64, and 11.60% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 95.80 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.70 males.

There are large communities in  and ;  has a large  population. There are fairly equal numbers of and  residents. The community is strong in specific areas, such as  and Morristown. (26.7%), (26.8%),  (41.8%),  (29.2%), and  (33.5%) have significant  populations, along with other northern and eastern communities, while the rest of the county is more mixed with populations of Irish and German ancestries. (20.8%), (25.1%), and  (23.5%) are particularly Irish American.

Education
The is a two-year public  serving students from Morris County. The school's campus is in and was founded in 1965. Another two-year college, the private , is in.

The -- area is also the home of three universities. The College at Florham, a campus of, is located on the border of these three towns. is a small, private in Madison. The is a private, four-year, liberal arts  located in Convent Station.

Municipalities
The following is a list of the municipalities in Morris County. Other, s in the county are listed below their parent municipality (or municipalities, as the case may be). Most of these areas are s that have been created by the for enumeration purposes within a. Other communities and enclaves that exist within a municipality are marked with an asterisk (*) next to the name.