Winnebago County is a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

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 sove ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 285,350 making it the seventh most populous county in Illinois behind

Cook County Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 20 ...

and its five surrounding

collar counties Collar counties is a colloquialism for DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties, the five counties of Illinois that border Cook County, which is home to Chicago. The collar counties are part of the Chicago metropolitan area and comp ...

. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

is Rockford. Winnebago County is the central county of the Rockford

Metropolitan Statistical Area In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are neither legally incorporated as a city or tow ...

History

Winnebago County was formed on January 16, 1836, out of Jo Daviess and LaSalle counties. It was named for the Winnebago Tribe of American Indians. At the time the county was founded its inhabitants consisted almost entirely of New Englanders and New England transplants from upstate New York. These were "Yankee" settlers, meaning they were descended from the English Puritans who settled New England during the early 1600s. They made up virtually all of Winnebago County's inhabitants during the first several decades of its history. In this regard the county was similar to most of the northern portion of the state of Illinois, and almost all of the neighboring state of Wisconsin. After the conclusion of the Black Hawk War there was an additional surge of immigration from

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

. As a result of this heritage the inhabitants of Winnebago County considered themselves, and functioned as, a cultural expansion of early New England culture. In the Presidential election of 1860,

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

won 3,985 votes in Winnebago County, whereas Stephen A. Douglas only won 817 votes.History of Rockford and Winnebago County, Illinois: From the First Settlement in 1834 to the Civil War, pg. 379 File:Winnebago County Illinois 1836.png, Winnebago County for its first year of existence File:Winnebago County Illinois 1837.png, Winnebago County in 1837, reduced to its current borders by the creation of Stephenson and Boone Counties

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (1.1%) is water.

Climate and weather

In recent years, average temperatures in the county seat of Rockford have ranged from a low of in January to a high of in July, although a record low of was recorded in January 1982 and a record high of was recorded in July 1936. Average monthly precipitation ranged from in February to in June.

Major highways

Interstate 39 Interstate 39 (I-39) is a highway in the Midwestern United States. I-39 runs from Normal, Illinois, at I-55 to State Trunk Highway 29 (WIS 29) in the town of Rib Mountain, Wisconsin, which is approximately south of Wausau. I- ...

* Interstate 90 * U.S. Highway 20 * U.S. Highway 51 * Illinois Route 2 *

Illinois Route 70 Illinois Route 70 is a state road in far north-central Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St ...

Illinois Route 75 Illinois Route 75 (IL 75) is an east–west state highway in north-central Illinois. It runs from downtown Freeport at Illinois Route 26 to WIS 67 at the Wisconsin state line southeast of Beloit, Wisconsin. This is a distance of . Route ...

Illinois Route 173 Illinois Route 173 (IL 173) is a east–west state highway that runs from Illinois Route 251 in the Rockford suburb of Machesney Park east to Illinois Route 137 (Sheridan Road/Buckley) in Zion near the Illinois-Wisconsin border. Illinois ...

* Illinois Route 251

Transit

* Beloit Transit *

Rockford Mass Transit District The Rockford Mass Transit District is the public transportation operator for the metro area of Rockford, Illinois. Service is provided six days per week along 19 routes, with several of these routes being combined into five Sunday routes that servi ...

List of intercity bus stops in Illinois The following is a list of presently operating intercity bus stops in Illinois with regular service. The list excludes charter buses, local transit buses, paratransit systems, and trolleybus systems. The following companies provide intercity bus se ...

Adjacent counties

* Rock County,

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

(north) * Boone County (east) * DeKalb County (southeast) * Ogle County (south) * Stephenson County (west) * Green County,

(northwest)

Demographics

As of the 2010 census, there were 295,266 people, 115,501 households, and 76,854 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 125,965 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 77.4% white, 12.2% black or African American, 2.3% Asian, 0.3% American Indian, 4.9% from other races, and 2.8% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 10.9% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 25.6% were German, 13.5% were

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

, 9.4% were American, 8.7% were

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

, 8.3% were English, and 7.4% were

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

. Of the 115,501 households, 33.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.3% were married couples living together, 14.0% had a female householder with no husband present, 33.5% were non-families, and 27.7% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.52 and the average family size was 3.07. The median age was 38.3 years. The median income for a household in the county was $47,198 and the median income for a family was $59,814. Males had a median income of $48,358 versus $32,103 for females. The per capita income for the county was $24,008. About 11.5% of families and 15.9% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...

, including 25.0% of those under age 18 and 7.5% of those age 65 or over.

Communities

Cities

* Loves Park * Rockford * South Beloit

Villages

* Cherry Valley * Durand * Machesney Park * New Milford * Pecatonica * Rockton * Roscoe * Winnebago

Census-designated place

* Lake Summerset

Unincorporated communities

* Alworth * Argyle *

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...

Harrison Harrison may refer to: People * Harrison (name) * Harrison family of Virginia, United States Places In Australia: * Harrison, Australian Capital Territory, suburb in the Canberra district of Gungahlin In Canada: * Inukjuak, Quebec, or " ...

* Kishwaukee * Latham Park * Seward * Shirland * Wempletown * Westfield Corners

Townships

Winnebago County is divided into these

townships A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

: * Burritt * Cherry Valley * Durand *

* Laona * Owen * Pecatonica * Rockford * Rockton * Roscoe * Seward * Shirland * Winnebago

Former Settlement

* Camp Grant

Politics

Prior to 1992, Winnebago County was a Republican Party stronghold in presidential elections, only backing the Democratic Party candidates in the national landslides of 1936 & 1964. Since then, it has become a swing county, backing the national winner in every presidential election from 1980 to 2012. In 2016,

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

won the county by only 89 votes over

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

, affected by the relatively large third-party vote that year.

References

;Specific ;General *

External links

*
Winnebago County Genealogy

History of Winnebago County
{{Coord, 42, 20, 11, N, 89, 09, 39, W, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-IL_source:GNIS 1836 establishments in Illinois Illinois counties Illinois placenames of Native American origin Populated places established in 1836 *