[3] It was named for John Hancock, the first signer of the Declaration of Independence.

[4] Hancock County comprises the Findlay, Ohio Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Additional townships were laid out as follows: Jackson in 1829; Liberty and Marion in December 1830; Big Lick, Blanchard, and Van Buren in 1831; Washington, Union, and Eagle in 1832; Cass and Portage in 1833; Pleasant in 1835; Orange in 1836; Madison in 1840, and finally Allen in 1850.

26.00% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.80% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 74,782 people, 30,197 households, and 19,884 families living in the county.

[12] In terms of ancestry, 43.1% were German, 11.0% were Irish, 10.3% were English, and 6.6% were American.

[15] Moffit[16] Although in the period up to World War I Hancock County's German heritage caused it to lean Democratic,[17] since that war – when German Americans were driven from the Democratic Party by Woodrow Wilson’s postwar settlement policies[18] and James M. Cox’s refusal to accept German language instruction[19] – the county has been powerfully Republican.

Since 1920 no Democratic presidential candidate has obtained an absolute majority of Hancock County's vote – although Franklin D. Roosevelt did win narrow pluralities in his 1932 and 1936 landslides – and it was one of just five Ohio counties that voted for Barry Goldwater over Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.