Райли округы, Канзас штаты

County in Kansas, United States

Riley County is a county located in the U. S. state of Kansas. Its county seat and largest city is Manhattan. As of the 2020 census, the population was 71,959. The county was named after Bennet Riley, the 7th governor of California, and a Mexican–American War hero. Riley County is home to Fort Riley and Kansas State University.

Riley County, named for Mexican–American War general Bennet Riley, was on the western edge of the 33 original counties established by the Kansas Territorial Legislature in August 1855. For organizational purposes, Riley County initially had attached to it Geary County and all land west of Riley County, across Kansas Territory into present day Colorado. The first Territorial Capital of Kansas Territory was located in the boundaries of Riley County, in the former town of Pawnee. The site now falls within the boundaries of Fort Riley, a U. S. Army post. Manhattan was selected as county seat in contentious fashion. In late 1857, an election was held to select the county seat, with Ogden prevailing. However, Manhattanites suspected election fraud, and were eventually able to prove that a number of votes were illegally cast. On May 30, 1879, the "Irving, Kansas Tornado" began in Riley County. This tornado is estimated to have been an F4 on the Fujita scale, with a damage path wide and 100 mile (161 km) long. Eighteen people were killed and sixty were injured.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 622 square miles (1,611 km2), of which 610 square miles (1,580 km2) is land and 12 square miles (31 km2) (2.0%) is water. The eastern border of the county follows the former course of the Big Blue River. The river was dammed in the 1960s and Tuttle Creek Lake was created as a result. The county falls within the Flint Hills region of the state.

As of the census of 2000, there were 62,843 people, 22,137 households, and 12,263 families residing in the county. The population density was There were 23,397 housing units at an average density of The racial makeup of the county was 84.78% White, 6.88% Black or African American, 0.63% Native American, 3.22% Asian, 0.17% Pacific Islander, 1.89% from other races, and 2.43% from two or more races. 4.57% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 22,137 households, out of which 27.80% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.20% were married couples living together, 6.80% had a female householder with no husband present, and 44.60% were non families. 27.50% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.42 and the average family size was 2.99. In the county, the population was spread out, with 18.80% under the age of 18, 34.50% from 18 to 24, 25.90% from 25 to 44, 13.30% from 45 to 64, and 7.50% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 24 years. For every 100 females, there were 114.30 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 115.40 males. The median income for a household in the county was $32,042, and the median income for a family was $46,489. Males had a median income of $26,856 versus $23,835 for females. The per capita income for the county was $16,349. About 8.50% of families and 20.60% of the population were below the poverty line, including 11.20% of those under age 18 and 6.70% of those age 65 or over.

Riley County is governed by three county commissioners, John Ford, Marvin Rodriguez, and Ron Wells.

Owing to its history of Yankee anti slavery settlement in “Bleeding Kansas” days, Riley County became strongly Republican following Kansas statehood, except when over half of its voters supported Progressive Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 who himself was a Republican who had broken away from the party in that election cycle. Being relatively resistant to the Democratic populism of William Jennings Bryan, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Riley County stood as the westernmost of thirty eight US counties to have never voted Democratic for President since the Civil War. However, it was the only one whose status as “never Democratic” stood significantly threatened in 2016 and 2020: Hillary Clinton's losing margin of only 3.5 percent was the second closest any Democrat has come to claiming the county behind her husband in the divided 1992 election. In the 2018 Kansas gubernatorial election, Democratic candidate Laura Kelly won Riley County by a 24 point margin, and in the 2018 US House Election in KS 01, Republican candidate Roger Marshall lost Riley County by a 2 point margin. 2020 became a historic election for Riley County, as, even though he lost the state, Joe Biden won the county 50.7% to 46.1%, the first Democratic presidential win in Riley County's history.

Riley County is the only county in Kansas without an elected sheriff; the county police department handles all the sheriff's functions. Riley County was a prohibition, or "dry", county until the Kansas Constitution was amended in 1986 and voters approved the sale of alcoholic liquor by the individual drink with a 30 percent food sales requirement. The food sales requirement was removed with voter approval in 2004. The county voted "No" on the 2022 Kansas Value Them Both Amendment, an anti abortion ballot measure, by 68% to 32%, outpacing its support of Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential election. Preliminary results showed "No" leading by a margin of 36.8%.

‡ means a community has portions in an adjacent county. † means a community is designated a Census Designated Place (CDP) by the United States Census Bureau.

Located north of the junction of the Smoky Hill and Republican rivers in Geary County, Fort Riley Military Reservation covers in Geary and Riley counties. The fort has a daytime population of nearly 25,000 and includes a census designated place.

Riley County is divided into fourteen townships. The city of Manhattan which is surrounded by Manhattan Township is considered governmentally independent and is excluded from the census figures for Manhattan Township or any other townships. In the following table, the population center is the largest city (or cities) included in that township's population total, if it is of a significant size. Sources: 2000 U. S. Gazetteer from the U. S. Census Bureau. Township FIPS Populationcenter Population Populationdensity/km2 (/sq mi) Land areakm2 (sq mi) Water areakm2 (sq mi) Water % Geographic coordinates Ashland 02725 150 2 (4) 89 (35) 1 (0) 0.75% Bala 03825 Leonardville 762 7 (18) 108 (42) 0 (0) 0.12% Center 12100 81 1 (3) 82 (32) 0 (0) 0.04% Fancy Creek 22950 126 2 (4) 83 (32) 0 (0) 0.07% Grant 28075 833 9 (23) 92 (35) 7 (3) 7.38% Jackson 34900 Randolph 326 4 (10) 84 (32) 10 (4) 10.30% Madison 44125 Fort Riley CDP (part) 8,173 22 (58) 366 (141) 0 (0) 0.11% Manhattan 44275 3,275 37 (95) 89 (35) 3 (1) 3.28% May Day 45225 78 1 (2) 81 (31) 0 (0) 0.04% Ogden 52300 Ogden 2,423 69 (178) 35 (14) 1 (0) 2.32% Sherman 65075 524 7 (18) 76 (29) 5 (2) 6.06% Swede Creek 69650 Cleburne (hist.) 157 1 (3) 125 (48) 4 (1) 3.00% Wildcat 79175 750 10 (25) 77 (30) 0 (0) 0.10% Zeandale 80900 357 2 (6) 154 (60) 2 (1) 0.97%