Summit County, Ohio

According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 419.38 square miles (1,086 km²), of which 412.08 square miles (1,067 km²) is land and 7.3 square miles (19 km²) (1.7%) is water.^[6] The largest portion of Cuyahoga Valley National Park is located in the northern part of the county. The southern border of the former Connecticut Western Reserve passes through the southern part of the county, leading to jogs in the east and west borders of the county.

• Cuyahoga County – northwest
• Geauga County – northeast
• Portage County – east
• Stark County – south
• Wayne County – southwest
• Medina County – west

• Cuyahoga Valley National Park (also extends north into Cuyahoga County)

Summit County, along with Cuyahoga County, is one of two of Ohio's 88 counties that have a charter government, as authorized by Article X of the Ohio Constitution. Under its charter, rather than three elected commissioners, Summit County has an elected County Executive and an eleven-member County Council. Eight members of the council are elected from individual districts; the other three are elected at large. Summit County also has an appointed Medical Examiner rather than an elected Coroner, and an elected Fiscal Officer, who exercises the powers and performs the duties of a county auditor, treasurer and recorder. The remaining officials are similar to the officials in other counties. They include the following:

• Clerk of courts – Tavia Galonski (D) (elected)^[7]
• Prosecuting attorney – Elliot Kolkovich (D) (elected) ^[8]
• Engineer – Alan Brubaker (D) (elected)
• Sheriff – Kandy Fatheree (D) (elected)
• Fiscal officer – Kristen Scalise (D) (elected)

Summit County currently has 14 Common Pleas judges. They are:

• Kelly McLaughlin (D),
• Kathryn Michael (D),
• Christine Croce (R),
• Jennifer Towell (D),^[9]
• Alison McCarty (R),
• Tammy O'Brien (R),
• Joy Oldfield (D),^[10]
• Mary Margaret Rowlands (D),
• Alison Breaux (D)
• Susan Baker Ross (D)
• Linda Tucci Teodosio (D) (Juvenile Court Judge)
• Katarina Cook (R) (Domestic Relations Judge)
• Kani Hightower (D) (Domestic Relations Judge) ^[11]
• Elinore Marsh Stormer (D) (Probate Judge)

Summit County has an 11-member council. Three members are elected at-large in mid-term cycles, while eight members are elected from districts coinciding with the presidential election. The current members of Summit County Council are:

• Erin Dickinson (D) (at-large)
• Elizabeth Walters* (D) (at-large) ^[12]
• John Donofrio (D) (at-large)
• Rita Darrow (D) (District 1)
• John Schmidt (D) (District 2)
• Gloria Rodgers (R) (District 3)
• Jeff Wilhite (D) (District 4) ^[13][14]
• Brandon Ford (D) (District 5) ^[15]
• Christine Higham (D) (District 6) ^[16]
• Beth McKenney (R) (District 7)
• Anthony Devitis (R) (District 8)

* Indicates Council President ^[14]

• John R. Morgan, 1981–1989
• Tim Davis, 1989–2001
• James B. McCarthy (D), 2001–2007^[17]
• Russell M. Pry (D), 2007-2016^{[18][19][20][21][22]}
• Ilene Shapiro (D), 2016–present

Like much of Northeast Ohio, Summit is heavily Democratic. It has only voted Republican three times since 1932, all in national Republican landslides– Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1956 victory, and the 49-state sweeps by Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan in 1972 and 1984, respectively.

As of the census of 2010, there were 541,781 people, 222,781 households, and 141,110 families residing in the county.^[29] The population density was 1,312.6 inhabitants per square mile (506.8/km²). There were 245,109 housing units at an average density of 593.8 per square mile (229.3/km²).^[30] The racial makeup of the county was 80.6% white, 14.4% black or African American, 2.2% Asian, 0.2% American Indian, 0.5% from other races, and 2.1% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 1.6% of the population.^[29] In terms of ancestry, 24.9% were German, 15.3% were Irish, 10.6% were English, 10.1% were Italian, 5.1% were Polish, and 4.5% were American.^[31]

Of the 222,781 households, 29.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.3% were married couples living together, 13.6% had a female householder with no husband present, 36.7% were non-families, and 30.0% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 2.98. The median age was 40.0 years.^[29]

The median income for a household in the county was $47,926 and the median income for a family was $62,271. Males had a median income of $47,892 versus $35,140 for females. The per capita income for the county was $26,676. About 10.0% of families and 13.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 19.8% of those under age 18 and 8.0% of those age 65 or over.^[32]

• University of Akron, Akron
• Kent State University Twinsburg Academic Center, Twinsburg
• Stark State College Akron

• Summit Metro Parks

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Summit County, Ohio

• Official Summit County page
• Akron-Summit Convention and Visitors Bureau
• Summit Memory, an online scrapbook capturing the history of Summit County, Ohio by the Akron-Summit County Public Library

41°08′N 81°32′W / 41.13°N 81.53°W / 41.13; -81.53