Des Moines County, Iowa

• White (non-Hispanic) 32,523 84.5%
• Hispanic or Latino (any race) 1,415 3.7%
• Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 1,819 4.7%
• Asian (non-Hispanic) 464 1.2%
• Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 2,109 5.5%
• American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 89 0.2%
• Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 1 0.0%
• Some other race (non-Hispanic) 67 0.2%

• Under 18 8,560 22.2%
• 18–24 2,889 7.5%
• 25–44 9,198 23.9%
• 45–64 9,660 25.1%
• 65 and over 8,180 21.3%

Median household income

$65,796

90% interval $59,313–$72,279

−$9,827 vs IA · 80th of 99

Below poverty line

14.0%

90% interval 11.4%–16.6%

+2.8 pp vs IA · 11th of 99

Unemployment (12-mo)

3.9%

+0.52 pp vs. state

County GDP

$2.9B

1.1% of state

Avg. annual pay

$54,600

Establishments

1,410

• Education & health services 4,997 24.9%
• Trade, transportation & utilities 4,078 20.3%
• Manufacturing 4,068 20.3%
• Leisure & hospitality 2,541 12.7%
• Professional & business services 1,256 6.3%
• Construction 902 4.5%
• Public administration 693 3.5%
• Financial activities 627 3.1%
• Other services 444 2.2%
• Information 141 0.7%
• Natural resources & mining 81 0.4%

The sectors listed cover 98.7% of covered employment; BLS withholds the rest to avoid disclosing individual employers.

Home ownership

74.6%

+2.9 pp vs IA · 61st of 99

Median gross rent

$904

−$68 vs IA · 21st of 99

Owner-occupied

12,823

Renter-occupied

4,355

• Concentrated

  Top three sectors employ 65% of the county workforce. Most panelists likely share employer relationships within these sectors, surface those connections early in voir dire before any institutional-defendant or sector-specific framing.

• Moderate wage spread

  Highest-paid sector (Construction, $68,022/yr) pays 3.2× the lowest (Leisure & hospitality, $21,467/yr). Expect meaningful income variation across the panel.

• Mixed business scale

  Average establishment employs 14 workers, a mix of institutional employers and small businesses. Both employed-by-large-institution and small-business-owner perspectives are likely on the panel.

• Republican 10,794 56.8%
• Democratic 7,935 41.8%
• Other / third-party 269 1.4%

• Spanish 477 1.3%
• German or other West Germanic 88 0.2%
• Arabic 48 0.1%
• Chinese 47 0.1%
• Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 37 0.1%
• French, Haitian, or Cajun 18 0.0%
• Tagalog 8 0.0%

Households

17,178

Family households

10,375

60.4% of households

Married couples w/ children

2,595

25.0% of families

Single-mother families

1,318

12.7% of families

Veterans

2,425

8.1% of civilians 18+

• Mainline Protestant 5,406 13.9%
• Catholic 3,904 10.0%
• Evangelical Protestant 2,363 6.1%
• Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 2,046 5.3%
• Black Protestant 250 0.6%

Health insured

96.1%

±1 pp

Uninsured

3.9%

±1 pp

71st of 99

With a disability

16.5%

±1.2 pp

15th of 99

Bachelor's or higher

23.8%

±1.8 pp

−7.6 pp vs IA · 36th of 99

Uninsured, under 65 (2024)

5.8%

90% interval 5.1%–6.5% · Census SAHIE

The under-65 uninsured rate is not comparable to the ACS insurance figures, which cover all ages.

Trial court

8th Judicial District Court

Judges

12 (District Court judges per Judicial Election District (general civil + felony criminal jurisdiction). District Associate, Associate Juvenile, and Magistrate judges (limited jurisdiction) are separately allocated and not counted here. Vintage 2026 iowacourts.gov directory; counts cross-checked against Iowa Code § 602.6201.)

Court seats

Albia, Bloomfield, Burlington, Centerville, Fairfield, Fort Madison and Keokuk, Keosauqua, Montezuma, Mount Pleasant, Oskaloosa, Ottumwa, Sigourney, Wapello, Washington

This judicial district spans multiple counties.

Traffic fatalities

3

10.02 per 100k adults (18+)

Fatal crashes

3