Middlesex County, Connecticut

**Middlesex County** is a county in the south central part of the U.S. state of Connecticut. As of the 2010 census, the population was 165,676. The county was created in May 1785 from portions of Hartford County and New London County.

Middlesex County is included in the Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford metropolitan statistical area known as Greater Hartford.

As with all eight of Connecticut's counties, there is now no county government and no county seat. In Connecticut, towns are responsible for all local government activities, including local police, fire and rescue, snow removal, and schools. In a few cases, neighboring towns will share certain resources, e.g. water, gas, etc. Counties in Connecticut serve merely as dividing lines for the state's judicial system.

## Government

Middletown was the county seat of Middlesex County from its creation in 1785 until the elimination of county government in 1960. There is no government in Middlesex County other than the Middlesex County Judicial District. All county functions other than courts and county sheriff's departments were discontinued in 1960, and again in 2000 when the county sheriff's departments were reorganized as the Connecticut Judicial Marshal, due to political corruption in the county sheriff's departments. Joseph E. Bibisi was the last person to serve as high sheriff of Middlesex County.

## Geography

The county has a total area of 439 square miles (1,140 km2), of which 369 square miles (960 km2) is land and 70 square miles (180 km2) (15.9%) is water. It is the smallest county in Connecticut by land area and second-smallest by total area.

The terrain trends from mostly level along the Connecticut River and Atlantic coast to gently rolling uplands away from them. The highest elevation is close to a triangulation station in **Meshomasic State Forest**, at 916 feet (279 m) above sea level; the lowest point is sea level.

Middlesex County is also the home of Wadsworth Falls.

### Bordering Counties

#### Connecticut

* Hartford County, Connecticut
* New London County, Connecticut
* New Haven County, Connecticut

## Demographics

As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 165,676 people, 67,202 households, and 43,743 families residing in the county. The population density was 448.6 inhabitants per square mile (173.2/km2). There were 74,837 housing units at an average density of 202.6 per square mile (78.2/km2). The racial makeup of the county was 89.2% white, 4.7% black or African American, 2.6% Asian, 0.2% American Indian, 1.3% from other races, and 2.1% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 4.7% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 24.6% were Italian, 21.2% were Irish, 14.0% were English, 13.5% were German, 11.1% were Polish, and 3.4% were American.

Of the 67,202 households, 29.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.9% were married couples living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, 34.9% were non-families, and 28.2% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 2.95. The median age was 43.1 years.

The median income for a household in the county was $74,906 and the median income for a family was $91,589. Males had a median income of $62,031 versus $50,031 for females. The per capita income for the county was $37,519. About 3.0% of families and 6.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.7% of those under age 18 and 4.3% of those age 65 or over.

## Communities

### Towns

* Chester
* Clinton
* Cromwell
* Deep River
* Durham
* East Haddam
* East Hampton
* Essex
* Haddam
* Killingworth
* Middlefield
* Old Saybrook
* Portland
* Westbrook