Routt County was created out of the western portion ofGrand County on January 29, 1877. It was named in honor ofJohn Long Routt, the last territorial and first state governor of Colorado. The western portion of Routt County was split off to formMoffat County on February 27, 1911.
According to theU.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 2,368 square miles (6,130 km2), of which 2,362 square miles (6,120 km2) is land and 6.1 square miles (16 km2) (0.3%) is water.[5]
U.S. Decennial Census[7] 1790-1960[8] 1900-1990[9] 1990-2000[10] 2010-2020[1]
At the2020 census there were 24,829 people, 10,619 households, and 5,106 families living in the county. The population density was 10.5 people per square mile (4.1 people/km2). There were 16,511 housing units at an average density of 7 units per square mile (2.7 units/km2). Theracial makeup of the county was 87.5% White, 0.6% Black or African American, 0.5% Native American, 0.7% Asian, 0.2% Pacific Islander, 3.2% from other races, and 7.4% from two or more races. 8.9% of the population were Hispanic Latino of any race.[11]Of the 10,619 households 21.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57% were married couples living together, 17.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 43% were non-families. 23.7% of households were one person and 6.4% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.31 and the average family size was 2.72.
The age distribution was 17.5% under the age of 18, 6.9% from 18 to 24, 28.9% from 25 to 44, 29.1% from 45 to 64, and 17.6% 65 or older. The median age was 42.6 years. For every 100 females there were 110.3 males.
The median household income was $104,803 and the median family income was $125,927. Males had a median income of $71,535 versus $60,020 for females. About 6.4% of the population were below thepoverty line, including 3.6% of those under age 18 and 8.4% of those age 65 or over.
Routt County is home to three public school districts:
Hayden School District RE-1, serving Hayden
Steamboat Springs School District RE-2, serving Steamboat Springs
South Routt School District RE-3, serving Oak Creek and Yampa
The county is also home toSteamboat Mountain School in Steamboat Springs and North Routt Community Charter School in Clark.
Routt County is also home to the Steamboat Springs campus ofColorado Mountain College. CMC Steamboat is the only college in the United States that offers a degree in Ski & Snowboard Business, which focuses on the retail, manufacturing, and marketing of snowsports.[12]
Routt County tilted Republican for much of the second half of the 20th century. From 1952 to 1988, Republicans carried the county in all but one election. The one break in this trend came in 1964, when Lyndon Johnson won Routt by a healthy margin of 63–37.
Since the late 1980s, Routt County has trended Democratic. It swung from a 34-point win for Ronald Reagan in 1984 to only a five-point win for George H. W. Bush in 1988. In 1992, Bill Clinton became the first Democrat to win the county since 1964 and only the second since 1948, carrying it with modest pluralities in both of his bids. George W. Bush won the county in 2000 by only 264 votes. However, John Kerry won it by a 10-point majority in 2004, and since then Routt has become powerfully Democratic, with Democrats winning by margins rivaling those in the counties closer to Denver. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the county 54–37. Routt County continued its Democratic trend in 2020, with Joe Biden winning the county 63–35. This is the largest margin of victory for a Democratic presidential candidate in the county since the 1916 election.
United States presidential election results for Routt County, Colorado[13]
