[2] The county was founded in 1851; it was named for General Tilghman Ashurst Howard, a Representative of Indiana.

[12] At the 2000 census,[13] there were 9,932 people, 3,974 households and 2,650 families residing in the county.

29.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

The Mighty Howard County Fair is held annually in Cresco, in the last full week of June.

[14] The population ranking of the following table is based on the 2020 census of Howard County.

With this 41-point swing, Howard County voted Republican in a presidential election for the first time since 1984, with Trump's 57.27% vote share marking the strongest Republican performance in the county since 1952.

In 2020, Trump further expanded his vote share to 63.07%, the best performance for any candidate in Howard County since Warren G. Harding a century earlier.