O'Brien County, Iowa

• White (non-Hispanic) 12,288 87.0%
• Hispanic or Latino (any race) 1,074 7.6%
• Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 240 1.7%
• Asian (non-Hispanic) 92 0.7%
• Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 366 2.6%
• American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 24 0.2%
• Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 22 0.2%
• Some other race (non-Hispanic) 20 0.1%

• Under 18 3,446 24.4%
• 18–24 1,037 7.3%
• 25–44 3,485 24.7%
• 45–64 3,169 22.4%
• 65 and over 2,989 21.2%

Median household income

$69,967

90% interval $63,303–$76,631

−$5,656 vs IA · 65th of 99

Below poverty line

9.3%

90% interval 7.3%–11.3%

−1.9 pp vs IA · 75th of 99

Unemployment (12-mo)

2.4%

−0.99 pp vs. state

County GDP

$1.3B

0.47% of state

Avg. annual pay

$49,710

Establishments

609

• Education & health services 1,900 29.0%
• Trade, transportation & utilities 1,762 26.9%
• Manufacturing 805 12.3%
• Leisure & hospitality 401 6.1%
• Public administration 324 4.9%
• Professional & business services 304 4.6%
• Financial activities 276 4.2%
• Natural resources & mining 244 3.7%
• Construction 236 3.6%
• Other services 191 2.9%
• Information 72 1.1%

The sectors listed cover 99.3% of covered employment; BLS withholds the rest to avoid disclosing individual employers.

Home ownership

76.1%

+4.4 pp vs IA · 54th of 99

Median gross rent

$868

−$104 vs IA · 34th of 99

Owner-occupied

4,421

Renter-occupied

1,388

• Concentrated

  Top three sectors employ 68% 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.

• Wide wage spread

  Highest-paid sector (Financial activities, $72,528/yr) pays 4.7× the lowest (Leisure & hospitality, $15,478/yr). Stark intra-economy class divisions on the panel; calibrate damages and lost-wages framing to that range.

• Mixed business scale

  Average establishment employs 11 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 5,998 80.0%
• Democratic 1,428 19.0%
• Other / third-party 75 1.0%

• Spanish 744 5.7%
• Arabic 110 0.8%
• German or other West Germanic 54 0.4%
• Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 9 0.1%
• Tagalog 4 0.0%

Households

5,809

Family households

3,737

64.3% of households

Married couples w/ children

1,152

30.8% of families

Single-mother families

210

5.6% of families

Veterans

664

6.2% of civilians 18+

• Mainline Protestant 4,172 29.4%
• Evangelical Protestant 3,399 24.0%
• Catholic 1,664 11.7%

Health insured

97.0%

±1.3 pp

Uninsured

3.0%

±1.3 pp

91st of 99

With a disability

14.8%

±2.2 pp

32nd of 99

Bachelor's or higher

22.0%

±2.7 pp

−9.4 pp vs IA · 56th of 99

Uninsured, under 65 (2024)

8.3%

90% interval 7.4%–9.2% · Census SAHIE

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

Trial court

3rd Judicial District Court

Judges

11 (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

Algona, Cherokee, Denison, Emmetsburg, Estherville, Ida Grove, Le Mars, Onawa, Orange City, Primghar, Rock Rapids, Sibley, Sioux City, Spencer, Spirit Lake, Storm Lake

This judicial district spans multiple counties.

Traffic fatalities

2

18.73 per 100k adults (18+)

Fatal crashes

2