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Kent County is a county located in the central part of the U.S. state of Delaware. As of 2000 the population was 126,697. The county seat is Dover, the state capital.

History

In about 1670 the English began to settle in the valley of the St. Jones River formally known as Wolf Creek. On June 21, 1680, The Duke of York chartered St. Jones County, which was carved out of New Amstel/New Castle County and Hoarkill/Sussex County. St. Jones County was transferred to William Penn on August 24, 1682, and became part of Penn's newly chartered Delaware Colony. Penn ordered a court town to be laid out, and the courthouse was built in 1697. The town of Dover was finally laid out in 1717, and became the capitol of Delaware in 1777. In 1787 Delaware was first to ratify the U.S. Constitution, and became "the First State." Kent County was a small grain farming region in the 18th Century. More recently, in the 1960's, the small town of Frederica-based ILC Dover, was the scene of the manufacturing of the spacesuits worn by NASA astronauts in the Apollo moon flights. The suits, dubbed the "A7L," was first flown on the Apollo 7 mission in October 1967, and was the suit worn by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Apollo 11 mission. The company still manufactures spacesuits to this day--the present-day Space Shuttle "soft" suit components (the arms and legs of the suit).

  • 1680 and 1682 information Source: NEW YORK: Atlas of Historical County Boundaries by John H. Long and Kathryn Ford Thorne.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 2,072 km² (800 mi²). 1,527 km² (590 mi²) of it is land and 545 km² (210 mi²) of it (26.30%) is water.

Kent County, Delaware:

Adjacent Counties

¹ across Delaware Bay; no land border

Demographics

As of the census² of 2000, there were 126,697 people, 47,224 households, and 33,623 families residing in the county. The population density was 83/km² (215/mi²). There were 50,481 housing units at an average density of 33/km² (86/mi²). The racial makeup of the county was 73.49% White, 20.66% Black or African American, 0.64% Native American, 1.69% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 1.27% from other races, and 2.22% from two or more races. 3.21% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 47,224 households out of which 35.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.90% were married couples living together, 13.80% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.80% were non-families. 23.00% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.40% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.06.

In the county the population was spread out with 27.30% under the age of 18, 10.10% from 18 to 24, 29.80% from 25 to 44, 21.20% from 45 to 64, and 11.70% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 93.10 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.60 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $40,950, and the median income for a family was $46,504. Males had a median income of $32,660 versus $24,706 for females. The per capita income for the county was $18,662. About 8.10% of families and 10.70% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14.80% of those under age 18 and 8.80% of those age 65 or over.

Municipalities and census-designated places

Trivia

Kent County, Delaware, is one of the few counties in the United States to border its namesake in another state--in this case, Kent County, Maryland.

External links

Delaware counties | Kent County, Delaware | 1683 establishments

Kent County (Delaware) | Comté de Kent (Delaware) | ケント郡 (デラウェア州) | Kent County, Delaware | Hrabstwo Kent (Delaware)

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Kent County, Delaware".

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