Kent County, Delaware
| Kent County, Delaware | ||
 The Kent County Courthouse in Dover in 2006.
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 Location in the state of Delaware |
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 Delaware's location in the U.S. |
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| Founded | 1683 | |
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| Seat | Dover | |
| Largest city | Dover | |
| Area - Total - Land - Water |
800 sq mi (2,072 km²) 590 sq mi (1,528 km²) 210 sq mi (544 km²), 26.30% |
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| Population - Density |
126,697 215/sq mi (83/km²) |
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| Congressional district | At-large | |
| Website | www.co.kent.de.us | |
Kent County is a county located in the central part of the U.S. state of Delaware. It is coextensive with the Dover, Delaware, Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2000 the population was 126,697. The county seat is Dover, the state capital. It is named for Kent, an English county.
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History
In about 1670 the English began to settle in the valley of the St. Jones River earlier 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.[1]
Penn ordered a court town to be laid out, and the courthouse was built in 1697. The town of Dover, named after the city of Dover in England's Kent, 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 1960s, Dover was the scene of the manufacturing of the spacesuits worn by NASA astronauts in the Apollo moon flights by ILC Dover, now based in the small town of Frederica. 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).
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 800 square miles (2,072 km²), of which 590 square miles (1,527 km²) is land and 210 square miles (545 km²) (26.30%) is water.
Adjacent counties
- New Castle County, Delaware - north
- Salem County, New Jersey - northeast¹
- Cumberland County, New Jersey - east¹
- Cape May County, New Jersey - east¹
- Sussex County, Delaware - south
- Caroline County, Maryland - southwest
- Queen Anne's County, Maryland - west
- Kent County, Maryland - west
¹ across Delaware Bay; no land border
See also: List of counties bordering eight or more counties
National protected area
- Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge
Demographics
As of the census[2] of 2000, there were 126,697 people, 47,224 households, and 33,623 families residing in the county. The population density was 215 people per square mile (83/km²). There were 50,481 housing units at an average density of 86 per square mile (33/km²). 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. 13.3% were of German, 11.3% United States or American, 10.9% Irish, 10.0% English and 5.4% Italian ancestry according to Census 2000. 92.5% spoke English and 3.3% Spanish as their first language.
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.
Communities
Cities
- Dover
- Harrington
- Milford (part of Milford is in Sussex County)
Towns
- Bowers
- Camden
- Cheswold
- Clayton (part of Clayton is in New Castle County)
- Farmington
- Felton
- Frederica
- Hartly
- Houston
- Kenton
- Leipsic
- Little Creek
- Magnolia
- Smyrna (part of Smyrna is in New Castle County)
- Viola
- Woodside
- Wyoming
Census-designated places
- Dover Air Force Base (a CDP as "Dover Base Housing")
- Highland Acres
- Kent Acres
- Rising Sun-Lebanon
- Riverview
- Rodney Village
- Woodside East
Other localities
- Berrytown
- Marydel
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.
References
- ↑ NEW YORK: Atlas of Historical County Boundaries by John H. Long and Kathryn Ford Thorne
- ↑ "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. http://factfinder.census.gov. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
External links
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New Castle County | Salem County, New Jersey | |
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| Kent County, Maryland and Queen Anne's County, Maryland |  |
Cumberland County, New Jersey and Cape May County, New Jersey | ||
 Kent County, Delaware  |
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| Caroline County, Maryland | Sussex County |
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State of Delaware