Placer County, California

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Placer County, California

Map
Location in the state of California
California's location in the U.S.
Statistics
Founded	1851
Seat	Auburn
Area - Total - Land - Water	1,503 sq mi (3,893 km²) 1,404 sq mi (3,636 km²) 98 sq mi (254 km²), 6.55%
Population - (2004) - Density	307,004 218/sq mi (84/km²)
Website: www.placer.ca.gov

Placer County is a county located in the Sierra Nevada of the U.S. state of California, in what is known as the Gold Country. It stretches from the suburbs of Sacramento to Lake Tahoe and the Nevada border. Because of the expansion of the Sacramento metropolitan area, Placer County is one of the fastest growing counties in the state. As of 2000, the population was 248,399. In 2004, the population had grown to 307,004. The county seat is Auburn.

1 History
2 Geography
3 Transportation infrastructure
4 Demographics
5 Politics
6 References
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] History

Placer County was created from parts of Sutter and Yuba Counties in 1851.

"Placer" is probably a contraction of the Spanish words plaza de oro (the place of gold). The county derived its name from the numerous places where the placer mining method of extracting gold was practiced.

[edit] Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1503 square miles (3892 km²), of which, 1404 square miles (3637 km²) of it is land and 98 square miles (255 km²) of it (6.55%) is water. Watercourses in Placer County include the American River and Bunch Creek.

[edit] Incorporated cities

[edit] Incorporated towns

Loomis

[edit] Unincorporated places

[edit] Adjacent counties

El Dorado County, California - south
Sacramento County, California - southwest
Sutter County, California - west
Yuba County, California - northwest
Nevada County, California - north
Washoe County, Nevada - east
Carson City, Nevada - east
Douglas County, Nevada - southeast

[edit] National protected areas

Eldorado National Forest (part)
Tahoe National Forest (part)

[edit] Transportation infrastructure

[edit] Major highways

[edit] Public transportation

Placer County Transit provides basic bus service primarily along the I-80 corridor between Alta and the Watt Ave. Sacramento Regional Transit light rail station. PCT also runs commuter service to Downtown Sacramento.
The cities of Auburn, Lincoln, and Roseville have their own local transit service.
Gold Country Stage (Nevada County) provides a connection between Auburn and Grass Valley.
Tahoe Area Regional Transit operates in Truckee (Nevada County), Tahoe City and along the North Shore of Lake Tahoe to Incline Village, Nevada.
Greyhound and Amtrak provide long distance intercity service.

[edit] Airports

There are three general aviation airports in Placer County:

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^[1] of 2000, there were 248,399 people, 93,382 households, and 67,701 families residing in the county. The population density was 177 people per square mile (68/km²). There were 107,302 housing units at an average density of 76 per square mile (30/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 88.59% White, 0.82% Black or African American, 0.89% Native American, 2.95% Asian, 0.16% Pacific Islander, 3.39% from other races, and 3.21% from two or more races. 9.67% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 15.5% were of German, 12.3% English, 10.6% Irish, 7.1% Italian and 7.0% American ancestry according to Census 2000. 89.7% spoke English and 6.0% Spanish as their first language.

There were 93,382 households out of which 35.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.40% were married couples living together, 9.20% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.50% were non-families. 21.30% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.63 and the average family size was 3.06.

In the county the population was spread out with 26.50% under the age of 18, 6.90% from 18 to 24, 29.00% from 25 to 44, 24.50% from 45 to 64, and 13.10% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 96.40 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.90 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $57,535, and the median income for a family was $65,858. Males had a median income of $50,410 versus $33,763 for females. The per capita income for the county was $27,963. About 3.90% of families and 5.80% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.30% of those under age 18 and 3.80% of those age 65 or over.

[edit] Politics

**Presidential Election Results**
Year	GOP	DEM	Others
2004	62.6% 95,969	36.3% 55,573	1.1% 1,736
2000	59.3% 69,835	36.0% 42,449	4.7% 5,515
1996	52.8% 49,808	37.1% 34,981	10.2% 9,638
1992	41.9% 38,298	33.7% 30,783	24.4% 22,285
1988	59.6% 42,096	39.0% 27,516	1.5% 1,030
1984	62.9% 38,035	35.2% 21,294	1.8% 1,098
1980	54.8% 28,179	33.7% 17,311	11.6% 5,950
1976	45.0% 18,154	52.2% 21,026	2.8% 1,131
1972	50.3% 18,597	45.8% 16,911	3.9% 1,437
1968	42.6% 12,427	48.2% 14,050	9.2% 2,667
1964	33.9% 9,389	66.0% 18,256	0.1% 31
1960	43.8% 10,439	55.8% 13,304	0.5% 120

Placer is a strongly Republican county in Presidential and congressional elections. The last Democrat to win a presidential majority in the county was Jimmy Carter in 1976.

Placer is part of California's 4th congressional district, which is held by Republican John Doolittle. In the State Assembly, Placer is part of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th districts, which are held by Republicans Rick Keene, Ted Gaines, and Roger Niello respectively. In the State Senate, Placer is mostly in the 1st district with parts in the 4th district. Both districts are held by Republicans, Dave Cox and Sam Aanestad respectively.

[edit] References

^ American FactFinder. United States Census Bureau. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.

[edit] See also

List of school districts in Placer County, California

[edit] External links

v • d • e Municipalities and communities of Placer County, California

County seat: Auburn

Cities and towns	Auburn \| Colfax \| Lincoln \| Loomis \| Rocklin \| Roseville

CDPs	Dollar Point \| Foresthill \| Granite Bay \| Kings Beach \| Meadow Vista \| North Auburn \| Sunnyside-Tahoe City \| Tahoe Vista

Unincorporated communities	Applegate \| Carnelian Bay \| Dutch Flat \| Homewood \| Newcastle \| Penryn \| Sheridan \| Squaw Valley \| Weimar