Lee County, Illinois

• White (non-Hispanic) 28,257 83.4%
• Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2,564 7.6%
• Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 1,795 5.3%
• Asian (non-Hispanic) 243 0.7%
• Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 973 2.9%
• American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 10 0.0%
• Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 0 0.0%
• Some other race (non-Hispanic) 27 0.1%

• Under 18 6,655 19.6%
• 18–24 2,249 6.6%
• 25–44 8,847 26.1%
• 45–64 8,891 26.3%
• 65 and over 7,227 21.3%

Median household income

$70,166

90% interval $64,192–$76,140

−$13,161 vs IL · 43rd of 102

Below poverty line

11.5%

90% interval 9.3%–13.7%

+0.0 pp vs IL · 59th of 102

Unemployment (12-mo)

4.8%

−0.02 pp vs. state

County GDP

$2.2B

0.19% of state

Avg. annual pay

$63,207

Establishments

675

• Education & health services 3,279 25.9%
• Manufacturing 3,066 24.3%
• Trade, transportation & utilities 2,221 17.6%
• Leisure & hospitality 862 6.8%
• Other services 462 3.7%
• Financial activities 386 3.1%
• Public administration 10 0.1%

The sectors listed cover 81.4% of covered employment; BLS withholds the rest to avoid disclosing individual employers.

Home ownership

73.6%

+6.5 pp vs IL · 73rd of 102

Median gross rent

$894

−$380 vs IL · 29th of 102

Owner-occupied

9,821

Renter-occupied

3,516

• 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.

• Moderate wage spread

  Highest-paid sector (Manufacturing, $82,783/yr) pays 3.8× the lowest (Leisure & hospitality, $21,610/yr). Expect meaningful income variation across the panel.

• Institutional employer scale

  Average establishment employs 19 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 9,680 60.2%
• Democratic 6,105 37.9%
• Other / third-party 306 1.9%

• Spanish 901 2.8%
• Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 197 0.6%
• Tagalog 94 0.3%
• German or other West Germanic 61 0.2%
• Arabic 57 0.2%
• Korean 24 0.1%
• French, Haitian, or Cajun 6 0.0%
• Vietnamese 3 0.0%
• Chinese 2 0.0%

Households

13,337

Family households

8,551

64.1% of households

Married couples w/ children

2,127

24.9% of families

Single-mother families

871

10.2% of families

Veterans

1,744

6.4% of civilians 18+

• Catholic 7,847 23.0%
• Mainline Protestant 4,900 14.4%
• Evangelical Protestant 1,984 5.8%
• Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 844 2.5%
• Black Protestant 76 0.2%

Health insured

96.2%

±0.7 pp

Uninsured

3.8%

±0.7 pp

84th of 102

With a disability

16.2%

±1.3 pp

43rd of 102

Bachelor's or higher

19.4%

±1.8 pp

−18.4 pp vs IL · 67th of 102

Uninsured, under 65 (2024)

6.5%

90% interval 5.7%–7.3% · Census SAHIE

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

Trial court

15th Judicial Circuit Court

Judges

9 (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

Dixon, Freeport, Galena, Mount Carroll, Oregon

This judicial district spans multiple counties.

Traffic fatalities

0

0 per 100k adults (18+)

Fatal crashes

0