Jefferson County, Illinois

• White (non-Hispanic) 30,570 83.6%
• Hispanic or Latino (any race) 1,030 2.8%
• Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 2,137 5.8%
• Asian (non-Hispanic) 351 1.0%
• Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 2,207 6.0%
• American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 120 0.3%
• Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 0 0.0%
• Some other race (non-Hispanic) 135 0.4%

• Under 18 8,140 22.3%
• 18–24 2,635 7.2%
• 25–44 9,078 24.8%
• 45–64 9,399 25.7%
• 65 and over 7,298 20.0%

Median household income

$61,746

90% interval $57,684–$65,808

−$21,581 vs IL · 88th of 102

Below poverty line

12.9%

90% interval 10.0%–15.8%

+1.4 pp vs IL · 47th of 102

Unemployment (12-mo)

5.3%

+0.49 pp vs. state

County GDP

$2.4B

0.21% of state

Avg. annual pay

$59,848

Establishments

858

• Education & health services 5,367 27.6%
• Trade, transportation & utilities 4,454 22.9%
• Manufacturing 4,446 22.9%
• Leisure & hospitality 1,677 8.6%
• Professional & business services 747 3.8%
• Financial activities 545 2.8%
• Public administration 541 2.8%

The sectors listed cover 91.5% of covered employment; BLS withholds the rest to avoid disclosing individual employers.

Home ownership

71.7%

+4.6 pp vs IL · 82nd of 102

Median gross rent

$885

−$389 vs IL · 31st of 102

Owner-occupied

10,623

Renter-occupied

4,197

• Concentrated

  Top three sectors employ 73% 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 (Financial activities, $86,599/yr) pays 3.4× the lowest (Leisure & hospitality, $25,311/yr). Expect meaningful income variation across the panel.

• Institutional employer scale

  Average establishment employs 23 workers, typical of an institutional-employer economy where large hospitals, plants, schools, and government agencies dominate. Expect many panelists to share an employer rather than work for themselves.

• Republican 12,189 73.3%
• Democratic 4,240 25.5%
• Other / third-party 210 1.3%

• German or other West Germanic 443 1.3%
• Spanish 428 1.2%
• Tagalog 93 0.3%
• Chinese 86 0.2%
• Korean 34 0.1%
• Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 29 0.1%
• French, Haitian, or Cajun 24 0.1%
• Vietnamese 9 0.0%

Households

14,820

Family households

9,449

63.8% of households

Married couples w/ children

2,391

25.3% of families

Single-mother families

976

10.3% of families

Veterans

2,196

7.7% of civilians 18+

• Evangelical Protestant 13,247 35.7%
• Mainline Protestant 1,404 3.8%
• Catholic 1,306 3.5%
• Black Protestant 890 2.4%
• Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 530 1.4%

Health insured

92.8%

±1 pp

Uninsured

7.2%

±1 pp

15th of 102

With a disability

18.3%

±1.3 pp

23rd of 102

Bachelor's or higher

18.2%

±1.3 pp

−19.6 pp vs IL · 82nd of 102

Uninsured, under 65 (2024)

6.4%

90% interval 5.7%–7.1% · Census SAHIE

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

Trial court

2nd Judicial Circuit Court

Judges

12 (Combined Circuit Judge + Associate Judge counts per circuit. Vintage 2024-2025; hand-sourced from per-circuit official court websites and the 2023-2024 Illinois Blue Book (ilsos.gov) judge roster, cross-referenced against the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts directory. Cook County total of ~400 reflects the Circuit Court of Cook County's combined elected Circuit Judges (~257) plus appointed Associate Judges (~145), the largest unified trial court in the United States. Several smaller downstate circuits carry estimates (see source comments).)

Court seats

Albion, Benton, Carmi, Elizabethtown, Fairfield, Lawrenceville, McLeansboro, Mount Carmel, Mount Vernon, Olney, Robinson, Shawneetown

This judicial district spans multiple counties.

Traffic fatalities

9

31.68 per 100k adults (18+)

Fatal crashes

9