Columbia County is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

located in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 58,490. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

and largest city is

Portage Portage or portaging ( CA: ; ) is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is also called a '' ...

. The county was created in 1846 as part of

Wisconsin Territory The Territory of Wisconsin was an organized and incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 3, 1836, until May 29, 1848, when an eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Wisconsin. Belm ...

. Columbia County is part of the Madison, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the Madison- Janesville- Beloit, WI Combined Statistical Area.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (3.8%) is water. The county's highest point is in the Baraboo Range, near Durward's Glen at 1,480 feet above sea level.

Major highways

* Interstate 39 *

Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain states, Mountain West, Great Pla ...

* Interstate 94 * U.S. Highway 51 * U.S. Highway 151 * Highway 13 * Highway 16 * Highway 22 * Highway 23 * Highway 33 * Highway 44 * Highway 60 * Highway 73 * Highway 78 * Highway 89 * Highway 113 * Highway 127 * Highway 146 * Highway 188

Railroads

Passenger *

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

Freight *

Wisconsin and Southern Railroad The Wisconsin and Southern Railroad is a Class II regional railroad in Southern Wisconsin and Northeastern Illinois currently operated by Watco. It operates former Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road) and ...

Canadian Pacific The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad is a Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, ...

* Columbus station * Portage station * Wisconsin Dells station

Buses

Airports

* 94C - Gilbert Field airport serves the county and surrounding communities. * C47 - Portage Municipal Airport supports the county.

Adjacent counties

* Marquette County – north * Green Lake County – northeast * Dodge County – east *

Dane County Dane County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 561,504, making it the second-most populous county in Wisconsin after Milwaukee County, Wiscon ...

– south *

Sauk County Sauk County is a county (United States), county in Wisconsin. It is named after a large village of the Sauk people. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 65,763. Its county seat and largest city is Baraboo, Wiscon ...

– west * Juneau County – northwest * Adams County – northwest

Demographics

2020 census

As of the census of 2020, the population was 58,490. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 26,565 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 91.9%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 1.5%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.7% Asian, 0.5% Native American, 1.3% from other races, and 4.1% from two or more races. Ethnically, the population was 3.7%

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race.

2000 census

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 52,468 people, 20,439 households, and 14,164 families residing in the county. The

was . There were 22,685 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 97.18%

, 0.88%

, 0.35% Native American, 0.33% Asian, 0.02%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 0.44% from other races, and 0.79% from two or more races. 1.58% of the population were

or Latino of any race. 46.4% were of German, 10.2% Norwegian, 7.8% Irish, 6.4% English and 5.0%

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

or American ancestry. There were 20,439 households, out of which 32.20% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.10% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 7.40% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.70% were non-families. 25.50% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.00% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 2.99. In the county, the population was spread out, with 25.20% under the age of 18, 7.10% from 18 to 24, 29.90% from 25 to 44, 23.40% from 45 to 64, and 14.40% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 101.60 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.40 males. In 2017, there were 602 births, giving a general fertility rate of 63.9 births per 1000 women aged 15–44, the 35th highest out of all 72 Wisconsin Counties. Additionally, there were 63 reported induced abortions performed on women of Columbia County residence, with a rate of 6.7 abortions per 1000 women aged 15–44, which is above the Wisconsin average rate of 5.2.

Communities

Cities

* Columbus (partly in Dodge County) * Lodi *

(county seat) * Wisconsin Dells (partly in Adams County, Juneau County, and

)

Villages

* Arlington *

Cambria Cambria is a name for Wales, being the Latinised form of the Welsh name for the country, . The term was not in use during the Roman period (when Wales had not come into existence as a distinct entity) or the early medieval period. After the ...

* Doylestown * Fall River *

Friesland Friesland ( ; ; official ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia (), named after the Frisians, is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen (p ...

* Pardeeville * Poynette * Randolph (mostly in Dodge County) * Rio * Wyocena

Towns

* Arlington *

Caledonia Caledonia (; ) was the Latin name used by the Roman Empire to refer to the forested region in the central and western Scottish Highlands, particularly stretching through parts of what are now Lochaber, Badenoch, Strathspey, and possibly as ...

* Columbus * Courtland * Dekorra * Fort Winnebago * Fountain Prairie * Hampden *

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

* Lewiston * Lodi * Lowville * Marcellon * Newport * Otsego *

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

* Randolph * Scott * Springvale *

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

* Wyocena

Census-designated places

* Lake Wisconsin (partial)

Unincorporated communities

* Anacker * Belle Fountain * Dekorra * Durwards Glen * East Friesland * Englewood * Harmony Grove * Ingle * Keyeser *

* Leeds Center * Lewiston * Lowville * Marcellon * North Leeds * Okee * Otsego

Ghost town/neighborhood

* Moe Settlement

Politics

For most of its history, Columbia County voters have backed the Republican Party candidate in national elections. Prior to 1992, the only times Republicans failed to win the county in the preceding 100 years of presidential elections were in the midst of a divided party vote in 1912, in 1924 when Wisconsinite Robert La Follette was on the ballot, and in the national Democratic Party landslides of 1932, 1936, & 1964. From 1992 onward, the county has been a swing county, voting for the statewide winner in all presidential elections since then except in 2004 and 2020, and voting for the national winner in all except 2000 and 2020. Republican

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

won narrow pluralities in the county in

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

and

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

, although a majority of county residents supported Democrat

Tammy Baldwin Tammy Suzanne Green Baldwin (born February 11, 1962) is an American politician and lawyer serving since 2013 as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States senator from Wisconsin. A member of the Democratic Party (United Stat ...

's re-election to the United States Senate in

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

. Trump went on to win an absolute majority in the county in 2024, the strongest Republican performance since 1988.https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/

References

External links

Columbia County government website

Columbia County map
from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation {{authority control 1846 establishments in Wisconsin Territory Madison, Wisconsin, metropolitan statistical area Populated places established in 1846