El Paso is a city in Woodford and McLean counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. The population was 2,810 at the 2010 census. The Woodford County portion of El Paso is part of the Peoria, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area. El Paso is a small community in central Illinois that took on more characteristics of a highway community after the construction of Interstate 39, which supplanted the older alignment of U.S. Highway 51. In addition, El Paso is a potential stop for Chicago-Peoria traffic via U.S. Highway 24. History El Paso was founded by George Gibson and James Wathen. Gibson gave it the Spanish name "El Paso", either after El Paso, Texas, or because of a nearby railroad junction. In August 1975, the city became the last locality in the contiguous United States to convert its telephone service from manual switching; prior to that time, telephones in the city could not be dialed directly from any outside location. The assistance of an operator was necessary to place the call, and local telephone numbers consisted of four digits. Parts of the outer Aleutian Islands in Alaska could not be dialed directly until the early 1980s. Geography El Paso is located at (40.738800, -89.016034). According to the 2010 census, El Paso has a total area of , all land. Demographics As of the 2000 United States Census, there were 2,695 people, 980 households, and 686 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 1,022 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 98.89% White, 0.15% African American, 0.15% Native American, 0.22% Asian, 0.22% from other races, and 0.37% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.71% of the population. There were 980 households, out of which 35.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.9% were married couples living together, 8.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.9% were non-families. 25.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.58 and the average family size was 3.12. In the city, the population was spread out, with 26.6% under the age of 18, 8.6% from 18 to 24, 28.7% from 25 to 44, 19.8% from 45 to 64, and 16.3% who were