Scott County is included in the Davenport–Moline-Rock Island, IA–IL Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The area was fully surveyed in 1837, and the county was established by the Wisconsin territorial legislature in that same year.

Scott County now comprises part of the Quad City region, which includes the cities of Davenport and Bettendorf (in Iowa) and Rock Island, Moline and East Moline (in Illinois).

The present Scott County Courthouse was completed in 1955 and expanded along with the jail in 2007.

[4][5] The old section of the Scott County Jail was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

[6] The courthouse was included as a contributing property in the Davenport Downtown Commercial Historic District in 2020.

[9] Part of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge is located within the county.

Notably, Republican governor Kim Reynolds won the county with a margin of over 10 points.

[20] In 2024, Republican Donald Trump flipped Scott County in a presidential race for the first time in 40 years when it was won by Ronald Reagan in his landslide 1984 victory.