Pierce 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 ...

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 ...

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,990. 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 Rugby.

History

The

Dakota Territory The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of ...

legislature created the county on March 11, 1887, with areas partitioned from Bottineau, Rolette, McHenry and the now-extinct DeSmet counties. It was named for Gilbert A. Pierce, a Dakotas political figure. The county was not organized at that time, nor was it attached to another county for administrative or judicial purposes. It was attached to McHenry County on February 4, 1889, but that lasted only two months; on April 6 the county government was effected and the attachment to McHenry was terminated. The county's boundaries were enlarged on November 8, 1892, when Church County was dissolved and a portion of its territory was annexed into Pierce. The geographical center of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

is in Pierce County, approximately west of Balta. Rugby has a monument for the center at the intersection of U.S. 2 and N.D. 3.

Geography

The North Fork of the Sheyenne River flows easterly through central Pierce County. The county terrain consists of rolling hills, mostly devoted to agriculture.''Pierce County ND'' Google Maps (accessed February 26, 2019)
/ref> The terrain generally slopes to the north and east, with its highest point a hill near the SW county corner, at ASL. The county has a total area of , of which is land and (5.9%) is water.

Major highways

* U.S. Highway 2 * U.S. Highway 52 * North Dakota Highway 3 * North Dakota Highway 17 * North Dakota Highway 19 * North Dakota Highway 60

Transit

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 ...

Empire Builder The ''Empire Builder'' is a daily long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago and either Seattle or Portland via two sections west of Spokane. Introduced in 1929, it was the flagship passenger train of the Great North ...

'' ('' Rugby station'')

Adjacent counties

* Rolette County - north * Towner County - northeast * Benson County - east * Wells County - southeast * Sheridan County - southwest * McHenry County - west * Bottineau County - northwest

Protected areas

Source: * Boyer National Wildlife Refuge * Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge * Hurricane Lake National Wildlife Refuge * Meyer Township National Wildlife Refuge

Lakes

Source: * Antelope Lakes * Aylmer Lake (part) * Battema Lake * Buffalo Lake * Clear Lake * Davis Lake * Girard Lake * Goose Lake * Gunderson Lake * Guss Lake * Horseshoe Lake * Kilgore Lake * Lesmeister Lake * Long Lake * Petrified Lake * Ranch Lake * Round Lake * Sand Lake * Smoky Lake (part) * Twin Lakes (part)

Demographics

2020 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 2020, there were 3,990 people.

2010 census

As of the

of 2010, there were 4,357 people, 1,835 households, and 1,145 families in the county. The population density was . There were 2,199 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 94.1% white, 3.9% American Indian, 0.5% black or African American, 0.1% Asian, 0.7% from other races, and 0.8% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 1.0% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 52.3% were

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, 34.5% were Norwegian, 5.5% were Irish, and 2.0% were American. Of the 1,835 households, 24.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.8% were married couples living together, 5.9% had a female householder with no husband present, 37.6% were non-families, and 34.3% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.23 and the average family size was 2.86. The median age was 46.9 years. The median income for a household in the county was $37,091 and the median income for a family was $55,304. Males had a median income of $39,511 versus $21,811 for females. The per capita income for the county was $18,575. About 6.4% of families and 12.9% 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 ...

, including 11.2% of those under age 18 and 19.2% of those age 65 or over.

Population by decade

Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) id:sfondo value:rgb(1,1,1) id:barra value:rgb(0.55,0.0,0.0) ImageSize = width:600 height:300 PlotArea = left:50 bottom:50 top:30 right:30 DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:9800 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = late ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:2450 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:1225 start:0 BackgroundColors = canvas:sfondo BarData= bar:1890 text:1890 bar:1900 text:1900 bar:1910 text:1910 bar:1920 text:1920 bar:1930 text:1930 bar:1940 text:1940 bar:1950 text:1950 bar:1960 text:1960 bar:1970 text:1970 bar:1980 text:1980 bar:1990 text:1990 bar:2000 text:2000 bar:2010 text:2010 bar:2020 text:2020 bar:2022 text:present PlotData= color:barra width:25 align:left bar:1890 from: 0 till:905 bar:1900 from: 0 till:4765 bar:1910 from: 0 till:9740 bar:1920 from: 0 till:9283 bar:1930 from: 0 till:9074 bar:1940 from: 0 till:9208 bar:1950 from: 0 till:8326 bar:1960 from: 0 till:7394 bar:1970 from: 0 till:6323 bar:1980 from: 0 till:6166 bar:1990 from: 0 till:5052 bar:2000 from: 0 till:4675 bar:2010 from: 0 till:4357 bar:2020 from: 0 till:3990 bar:2022 from: 0 till:3942 color:darkblue PlotData= bar:1890 at:905 fontsize:S text:905 shift:(-14,5) bar:1900 at:4765 fontsize:S text:4765 shift:(-14,5) bar:1910 at:9740 fontsize:S text:9740 shift:(-14,5) bar:1920 at:9283 fontsize:S text:9283 shift:(-14,5) bar:1930 at:9074 fontsize:S text:9074 shift:(-14,5) bar:1940 at:9208 fontsize:S text:9208 shift:(-14,5) bar:1950 at:8326 fontsize:S text:8326 shift:(-14,5) bar:1960 at:7394 fontsize:S text:7394 shift:(-14,5) bar:1970 at:6323 fontsize:S text:6323 shift:(-14,5) bar:1980 at:6166 fontsize:S text:6166 shift:(-14,5) bar:1990 at:5052 fontsize:S text:5052 shift:(-14,5) bar:2000 at:4675 fontsize:S text:4675 shift:(-14,5) bar:2010 at:4357 fontsize:S text:4357 shift:(-14,5) bar:2020 at:3990 fontsize:S text:3990 shift:(-14,5) bar:2022 at:3942 fontsize:S text:3942 shift:(-14,5) TextData= fontsize:S pos:(20,20) text:Data from U.S. Census Bureau

Communities

Cities

* Balta * Rugby (county seat) * Wolford

Census-designated places

* Barton * Orrin *

Selz Selz may refer to: * Selz (surname), a German surname, includes a list of people with this last name * Selz (river), a tributary to the Rhine in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany * Selz, Alsace, the German name of Seltz, a commune in Bas-Rhin, Alsa ...

Unincorporated communities

Source: * Leverich * Silva * Tunbridge

Townships

* Alexanter * Antelope Lake * Balta * Elling * Elverum * Hagel * Jefferson * Meyer * Ness * Reno Valley * Rush Lake * Torgerson * Truman * Tuscarora * White

Politics

Pierce County voters have tended to vote Republican for decades. In only one national election since 1964 has the county selected the Democratic Party candidate (as of 2024).

Education