Raleigh County

administration
Raleigh County Courthouse
US state :	West Virginia
Administrative headquarters :	Beckley
Address of the administrative headquarters:	County Courthouse 215 Main Street Beckley, WV 25801-4612
Foundation :	January 23, 1850
Made up from:	Fayette County
Area code :	001 304
Demographics
Residents :	78,859 (2010)
Population density :	50.2 inhabitants / km ²
geography
Total area :	1578 km²
Water surface :	6 km²
map

Website : www.raleighcounty.com

Raleigh County is a county in the state of West Virginia in the United States . The county seat is Beckley .

geography

The county is located in south-central West Virginia and has an area of 1,578 square kilometers, of which six square kilometers are water. It is bordered clockwise by the following counties: Kanawha County , Fayette County , Summers County , Mercer County , Wyoming County, and Boone County .

history

Raleigh County was formed on January 23, 1850 from parts of Fayette County. It was named after Sir Walter Raleigh , an English navigator , explorer and writer and favorite of Queen Elizabeth I of England .

Demographic data

Population development
Census	Residents	± in%
1850	1765	-
1860	3367	90.8%
1870	3673	9.1%
1880	7367	100.6%
1890	9597	30.3%
1900	12,436	29.6%
1910	25,633	106.1%
1920	42,482	65.7%
1930	68,072	60.2%
1940	86,687	27.3%
1950	96.273	11.1%
1960	77,826	-19.2%
1970	70,080	-10%
1980	86,821	23.9%
1990	76,819	-11.5%
2000	79,220	3.1%
2010	78,859	-0.5%
Before 1900 1900-1990

Raleigh County Age Pyramid

As of the 2000 census , Raleigh County had 79,220 people in 31,793 households and 22,096 families. The population density was 50 inhabitants per square kilometer. The racial the population was composed of 89.63 percent white, 8.52 percent African American, 0.19 percent Native American, 0.72 percent Asian, 0.02 percent of residents from the Pacific island area and 0.12 percent from other ethnic groups Groups; 0.80 percent were descended from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race was 0.92 percent of the population.

Of the 31,793 households, 28.6 percent had children and young people under the age of 18 living with them. 54.3 percent were married couples living together, 11.9 percent were single mothers, 30.5 percent were non-families, 27.1 percent were single households and 12.9 percent had people aged 65 years or over. The average household size was 2.38 and the average family size was 2.88 people.

For the entire county, the population was composed of 21.5 percent of residents under 18 years of age, 8.7 percent between 18 and 24 years of age, 28.6 percent between 25 and 44 years of age, 25.7 percent between 45 and 64 years of age 15.4 percent were 65 years of age or older. The average age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 96.8 males. For every 100 women aged 18 or over there were 94.9 men.

The median income for a household in the county is $ 28,181 , and the median income for a family is $ 35,315. Males had a median income of $ 33,000 versus $ 20,672 for women. The per capita income was $ 16,233. 14.6 percent of families and 18.5 percent of the population were below the poverty line. Of these, 28.7 percent were children or adolescents under 18 years of age and 10.5 percent were people over 65 years of age.