 hayes county is a county located in the u.s. state of nebraska. as of the 2010 census, the population was 967. its county seat is hayes center. the county was formed in 1877 and named after president rutherford b. hayes. in the nebraska license plate system, hayes county is represented by the prefix 79 (it had the seventy-ninth-largest number of vehicles registered in the county when the license plate system was established in 1922). ==geography== according to the u.s. census bureau, the county has a total area of , of which  is land and  (0.03%) is water. ===major highways=== *20px u.s. highway 6 *20px nebraska highway 25 *20px nebraska highway 25a ===adjacent counties=== *frontier county (east) *hitchcock county (south) *dundy county (southwest) *chase county - (west) *perkins county (northwest) *lincoln county (north) ==demographics== {{uscensuspop |1880= 119 |1890= 3953 |1900= 2708 |1910= 3011 |1920= 3327 |1930= 3603 |1940= 2958 |1950= 2404 |1960= 1919 |1970= 1530 |1980= 1356 |1990= 1222 |2000= 1068 |2010= 967 |estyear = 2013 |estimate = 976 |footnote=u.s. decennial census{{cite web|url=http://www.census.gov/prod/www/decennial.html|
Nebraska_counties