Okaloosa County, Florida
The Okaloosa County is a county located in the state of Florida in the United States. The administrative headquarters ( County Seat) is Crestview.
Geography
The county has an area of 2802 square kilometers, of which 379 square kilometers are water surface. It is bordered to the east by the Walton County and in the west by the Santa Rosa County.
History
The Okaloosa County was formed on June 3, 1915 from parts of Santa Rosa County. It was named after the words oka (water) and lusa (black ) of the Choctaw Indians. In the 1930s, the timber industry was the most important industry in County. At this time, Duggan Lumber Company had 14 sawmills, where almost exclusively timber produced in the territory of Laurel Hill. In 1937, the Maxwell Field was expanded to a base of the Air Force and 1941 to the test plots. Today, the Eglin Air Force Base is the largest Air Force base in the western world. Another Air Force base is Hurlburt Field.
Demographic data
According to the census in 2010 lived in Okaloosa County 180 822 people in 92 577 households. The population density was 74.6 inhabitants per square kilometer. The racial the population was composed of 81.1 % White, 9.3% Black or African American, 0.6 % Indigenous and 2.9 % Asian Americans. 2.2% were members of other ethnic groups and 3.9% in different ethnic groups. 6.8% of the population were Hispanic or Latino.
In 2010, children under the age of 18 and 25.1 % of all households lived in 31.2 % of all households with persons at least 65 years. 66.9 % of households were family households (consisting of married couples with or without offspring or a parent with offspring ). The average size of a household was 2.43 persons and the average family size is 2.92 people.
24.9% of the population were younger than 20 years, 27.1% were 20-39 years old, 28.4 % were 40-59 years old and 19.4 % were at least 60 years old. The median age was 38 years. 50.2 % of the population were male and 49.8 % female.
The median income for a household was $ 54,118, while 12.5 % of the population lived below the poverty line.
In 2010, English was the mother tongue of 91.09 % of the population spoke Spanish 4.88% and 4.03% had a different mother tongue.
Further education institutions
- University of West Florida in Fort Walton Beach
- Troy University - Florida Region Western in Fort Walton Beach
- Okaloosa -Walton College in Niceville (main campus) and Fort Walton Beach
- Okaloosa Applied Technology Center in Fort Walton Beach
Places in Okaloosa County
Places in Okaloosa County with populations of the census of 2010:
Cities:
- Crestview ( County Seat) - 20 978 inhabitants
- Destin - 12,305 inhabitants
- Fort Walton Beach - 19,507 inhabitants
- Laurel Hill - 537 inhabitants
- Mary Esther - 3,851 inhabitants
- Niceville - 12,749 inhabitants
- Valparaiso - 5,036 inhabitants
Towns:
- Cinco Bayou - 383 inhabitants
- Shalimar - 717 inhabitants
Census-designated places:
- Eglin Air Force Base - 2,274 inhabitants
- Lake Lorraine - 7,010 inhabitants
- Ocean City - 5,550 inhabitants
- Wright - 23,127 inhabitants