Kankakee County, Illinois

• White (non-Hispanic) 72,459 68.0%
• Hispanic or Latino (any race) 13,523 12.7%
• Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 15,220 14.3%
• Asian (non-Hispanic) 1,048 1.0%
• Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 3,986 3.7%
• American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 35 0.0%
• Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 0 0.0%
• Some other race (non-Hispanic) 364 0.3%

• Under 18 24,272 22.8%
• 18–24 10,490 9.8%
• 25–44 26,235 24.6%
• 45–64 26,608 25.0%
• 65 and over 19,030 17.8%

Median household income

$75,936

90% interval $71,035–$80,837

−$7,391 vs IL · 32nd of 102

Below poverty line

13.1%

90% interval 11.0%–15.2%

+1.6 pp vs IL · 43rd of 102

Unemployment (12-mo)

5.8%

+0.96 pp vs. state

County GDP

$8.5B

0.74% of state

Avg. annual pay

$58,435

Establishments

2,130

• Education & health services 12,078 28.8%
• Trade, transportation & utilities 8,182 19.5%
• Manufacturing 7,001 16.7%
• Leisure & hospitality 4,229 10.1%
• Professional & business services 2,919 7.0%
• Public administration 1,437 3.4%
• Other services 1,132 2.7%

The sectors listed cover 88.2% of covered employment; BLS withholds the rest to avoid disclosing individual employers.

Home ownership

69.9%

+2.8 pp vs IL · 89th of 102

Median gross rent

$1,097

−$177 vs IL · 9th of 102

Owner-occupied

28,641

Renter-occupied

12,355

• 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.

• Wide wage spread

  Highest-paid sector (Manufacturing, $92,291/yr) pays 4.2× the lowest (Leisure & hospitality, $22,051/yr). Stark intra-economy class divisions on the panel; calibrate damages and lost-wages framing to that range.

• Institutional employer scale

  Average establishment employs 20 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 28,285 59.5%
• Democratic 18,399 38.7%
• Other / third-party 831 1.7%

• Spanish 9,510 9.5%
• German or other West Germanic 296 0.3%
• Tagalog 220 0.2%
• French, Haitian, or Cajun 132 0.1%
• Arabic 91 0.1%
• Korean 81 0.1%
• Vietnamese 71 0.1%
• Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 64 0.1%
• Chinese 60 0.1%

Households

40,996

Family households

26,196

63.9% of households

Married couples w/ children

6,218

23.7% of families

Single-mother families

3,191

12.2% of families

Veterans

5,358

6.5% of civilians 18+

• Catholic 22,253 20.7%
• Evangelical Protestant 16,052 14.9%
• Mainline Protestant 6,522 6.1%
• Black Protestant 4,992 4.6%
• Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 1,429 1.3%
• Orthodox 100 0.1%

Health insured

94.3%

±0.6 pp

Uninsured

5.7%

±0.6 pp

32nd of 102

With a disability

15.6%

±0.7 pp

51st of 102

Bachelor's or higher

21.2%

±1.2 pp

−16.6 pp vs IL · 47th of 102

Uninsured, under 65 (2024)

6.9%

90% interval 6.2%–7.6% · Census SAHIE

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

Trial court

21st Judicial Circuit Court

Judges

10 (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

Kankakee, Watseka

This judicial district spans multiple counties.

Traffic fatalities

23

27.93 per 100k adults (18+)

Fatal crashes

19