[2] The county was founded in 1837 and named after George Wallace Jones, a United States senator and member of Congress.

[3][4] Jones County is included in the Cedar Rapids Metropolitan Statistical Area.

[6] Monticello Regional Airport (MXO) serves the county and surrounding communities.

25.30% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.50% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

The population ranking of the following table is based on the 2020 census of Jones County.

It voted Democrat only four times between 1856 and 1984, in 1912 for Woodrow Wilson when he won with a plurality of the vote after former Republican Theodore Roosevelt ran as the Progressive candidate, leading to a fracture in the national Republican Party, then backing Franklin D. Roosevelt in his two landslide victories of 1932 and 1936, and then supporting Lyndon B. Johnson during his 1964 landslide.

From 1988 to 2012, Jones County favored the Democratic nominee in each election.