La Plata County comprises the Durango, CO Micropolitan Statistical Area.

24.80% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

Out of the total population, 9.30% of those under the age of 18 and 7.70% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.

In its early years La Plata County generally leaned towards the Democratic Party.

Only Benjamin Harrison in 1888, and the three landslide victories of Theodore Roosevelt, Warren G. Harding and Herbert Hoover saw the county vote Republican before World War II.

Since John Kerry became the first candidate in sixteen years from either party to gain a majority in La Plata County in the 2004 election, the county has tended towards the Democratic Party: Barack Obama's 2008 share of the vote was the highest for a Democrat since Woodrow Wilson's 92 years prior.