Iron 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 of

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 6,137, making it the third-least populous county in Wisconsin. 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 ...

is Hurley. It was named for the valuable

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the f ...

found within its borders. The county overlaps with small parts of the Bad River and Lac du Flambeau Indian reservations. The county is considered a high-recreation retirement destination by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (18%) is water.

Adjacent counties

* Vilas County - east, southeast * Price County - southwest * Ashland County - west *

Gogebic County, Michigan Gogebic County ( or ) is a County (United States), county in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 14,380. The county seat is Besse ...

- northeast

Major highways

County Highways

* * * * * * * * *

Railroads

* Watco

Buses

Airport

* KIWD - Gogebic-Iron County Airport – Commercial air service is available.

Demographics

2020 census

As of the census of 2020, the population was 6,137. 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 5,523 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 95.0%

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 ...

, 1.1% Native American, 0.3%

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 ...

, 0.2% Asian, 0.7% from other races, and 2.8% from two or more races. Ethnically, the population was 1.2%

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.

2010 census

As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 5,916 people living in the county. 97.9% were

, 0.6% Native American, 0.3% Asian, 0.1% Black or African American, 0.2% of some other race and 0.9% of two or more races. 0.6% were Hispanic or Latino (of any race). 22.9% were of German, 13.7% Italian, 12.6% Finnish, 8.2% Polish, 6.6% American and 5.4% Irish ancestry.

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 6,861 people, 3,083 households, and 1,960 families living in the county. The

was . There were 5,706 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 98.28%

, 0.09%

, 0.60% Native American, 0.13% Asian, 0.04%

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 ...

, 0.06% from other races, and 0.80% from two or more races. 0.66% of the population were

or Latino of any race. 20.9% were of German, 18.6% Italian, 15.2% Finnish, 9.3% Polish and 6.4% Irish ancestry. 97.1% spoke English as their first language. There were 3,083 households, out of which 22.20% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.00% 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, 7.00% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.40% were non-families. 32.00% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16.30% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.19 and the average family size was 2.74. In the county, the population was spread out, with 19.40% under the age of 18, 5.90% from 18 to 24, 24.70% from 25 to 44, 26.80% from 45 to 64, and 23.20% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 45 years. For every 100 females there were 96.10 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.80 males. In 2017, there were 34 births, giving a general fertility rate of 46.1 births per 1000 women aged 15–44, the 2nd lowest rate out of 72 Wisconsin counties. 13 of the births were to unmarried mothers, 21 were to married mothers. Additionally, there were no reported induced abortions performed on women of Iron County residence in 2017.

Communities

Iron County Wisconsin Sign Looking West US51

Cities

* Hurley (county seat) *

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Towns

* Anderson * Carey * Gurney * Kimball *

Knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

* Mercer * Oma * Pence *

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

* Sherman

Census-designated places

Iron Belt Bilbao's Iron Ring" ...

* Mercer * Pence *

Unincorporated communities

* Carter * Cedar *

Germania Germania ( ; ), also more specifically called Magna Germania (English: ''Great Germania''), Germania Libera (English: ''Free Germania''), or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman provinces of Germania Inferior and Germania Superio ...

* Gurney * Hoyt * Kimball * Manitowish * Pine Lake * Orva * Powell * Rouse * Springstead * Tyler Forks * Upson * Van Buskirk

Historical sites

The

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

lists the following historic sites in Iron County:

Politics

From 1928 to 1996, Iron County voted Democratic in presidential elections, the only exception being

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

's landslide in 1972. In 2000,

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

became only the second Republican since 1920 to carry Iron County despite narrowly losing the national popular vote, and the county remained a competitive county for the next three elections, narrowly voting for Kerry in 2004 and for Romney in 2012. Recent elections have seen the county trend solidly Republican however; in 2016, Trump won the county with 59.2% (the first time a Republican had won an outright majority in the county since 1920), and in 2020, he increased his vote share to 60.8%, and further expanding it to 62.6% (a difference of 1,070 votes) in 2024.

References

External links

Iron County government website

Iron County map
from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation
Iron County Economic Development

{{Coord, 46.33, -90.26, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-WI_source:UScensus1990 1893 establishments in Wisconsin Populated places established in 1893