Westchester County, New York

Westchester County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. Westchester covers an area of 450 square miles (1,200 km²), consisting of 48 municipalities. According to the 2010 Census, the county had a population of 949,113, estimated to have increased by 2.5% to 972,634 by 2014. Established in 1683, Westchester was named after the city of Chester, England. The county seat of Westchester is the city of White Plains.

According to 2011 U.S. Census Bureau data, the per-capita income in the county was $47,814 and the median income for a household in the county was $77,006. In terms of household income, Westchester County is the fifth-wealthiest county in New York (after Nassau, Putnam, Suffolk, and Rockland Counties) and is the forty-seventh wealthiest county nationally. Westchester County ranks second after New York County in terms of highest median income per person, with a higher concentration of incomes in smaller households.

The county's location places New York City, Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island, and Long Island Sound to its south, Putnam County to its north, Fairfield County, Connecticut to its east, and Rockland County as well as Bergen County, New Jersey across the Hudson River to the west. Westchester is the first suburban area of its scale in the world to develop, due mostly to the upper-middle class development of entire communities in the late 19th century, and the subsequent rapid population growth.