[3] It was named after Nathan Dane, a Massachusetts delegate to the Congress of the Confederation who helped carve Wisconsin out of the Northwest Territory.

Commercial General Aviation In 2017, there were 5,891 births, giving a general fertility rate of 51.7 births per 1000 women aged 15–44, the eighth lowest rate out of all 72 Wisconsin counties.

428 of the births were to mothers who held doctorate or professional degrees, more than any other Wisconsin county.

At the 2010 census there were 488,073 people, 203,750 households, and 116,752 families living in the county.

At the 2000 census there were 426,526 people, 173,484 households, and 100,794 families living in the county.

Like most other counties anchored by an urban population center and a large public university, Dane County is solidly Democratic, with a long history in the progressive movement.

It has backed the Democratic presidential nominee in every election since 1932 with the exception of the two nationwide landslide victories of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956, and even then, Eisenhower's margin of victory was under 3% both times.

Within Wisconsin, only the predominantly Native American county of Menominee is more reliably Democratic.

The last Republicans the county supported at state level were Governor Tommy Thompson and Treasurer Jack Voight in 1994.

[20][21] The last Republican Senator to carry the county was Alexander Wiley in 1956 by less than one percent, 10 years earlier the county was the only one in the state to not vote for notorious Senator Joseph McCarthy.

[22][23] In the three-party era of 1930s-1940s, the county backed Progressive Party candidates, such as the La Follette brothers, Orland Steen Loomis and Herman Ekern.