Clay County, Nebraska

Clay County, Nebraska
Clay County courthouse in Clay Center
Location in the U.S. state of Nebraska
Nebraska's location in the U.S.
Founded	1871
Named for	Henry Clay
Seat	Clay Center
Largest city	Sutton
Area
• Total	574 sq mi (1,487 km2)
• Land	572 sq mi (1,481 km2)
• Water	1.2 sq mi (3 km2), 0.2%
Population
• (2010)	6,542
• Density	11/sq mi (4/km²)
Congressional district	3rd
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5
Website	www.claycounty.ne.gov

Clay County is a county in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2010 census, the population was 6,542. Its county seat is Clay Center. The county was formed in 1855 and later organized in 1871. It was named after Henry Clay, a member of the United States Senate from Kentucky and United States Secretary of State in the 19th century.

In the Nebraska license plate system, Clay County is represented by the prefix 30 (it had the thirtieth-largest number of vehicles registered in the county when the license plate system was established in 1922).

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 574 square miles (1,490 km²), of which 572 square miles (1,480 km²) is land and 1.2 square miles (3.1 km²) (0.2%) is water.

As of the census of 2000, there were 7,039 people, 2,756 households, and 1,981 families residing in the county. The population density was 12 people per square mile (5/km²). There were 3,066 housing units at an average density of 5 per square mile (2/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 97.57% White, 0.17% Black or African American, 0.31% Native American, 0.30% Asian, 1.24% from other races, and 0.41% from two or more races. 3.48% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 49.4% were of German, 7.2% English, 7.2% American, 5.4% Swedish and 5.3% Irish ancestry according to Census 2000.