Wayne County, Illinois

• White (non-Hispanic) 15,171 95.0%
• Hispanic or Latino (any race) 330 2.1%
• Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 41 0.3%
• Asian (non-Hispanic) 97 0.6%
• Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 327 2.0%
• American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 0 0.0%
• Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 0 0.0%
• Some other race (non-Hispanic) 7 0.0%

• Under 18 3,592 22.5%
• 18–24 1,146 7.2%
• 25–44 3,665 22.9%
• 45–64 4,060 25.4%
• 65 and over 3,510 22.0%

Median household income

$61,720

90% interval $56,763–$66,677

−$21,607 vs IL · 89th of 102

Below poverty line

14.3%

90% interval 11.4%–17.2%

+2.8 pp vs IL · 28th of 102

Unemployment (12-mo)

5.1%

+0.25 pp vs. state

County GDP

$679.4M

0.06% of state

Avg. annual pay

$44,141

Establishments

363

• Education & health services 1,573 39.7%
• Trade, transportation & utilities 997 25.2%
• Leisure & hospitality 332 8.4%
• Public administration 233 5.9%
• Natural resources & mining 199 5.0%
• Financial activities 164 4.1%
• Other services 129 3.3%

The sectors listed cover 91.6% of covered employment; BLS withholds the rest to avoid disclosing individual employers.

Home ownership

78.4%

+11.3 pp vs IL · 40th of 102

Median gross rent

$657

−$617 vs IL · 94th of 102

Owner-occupied

5,382

Renter-occupied

1,484

• 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, $58,280/yr) pays 3.2× the lowest (Leisure & hospitality, $18,184/yr). Expect meaningful income variation across the panel.

• 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 7,019 84.9%
• Democratic 1,155 14.0%
• Other / third-party 93 1.1%

• German or other West Germanic 675 4.5%
• Spanish 283 1.9%
• French, Haitian, or Cajun 20 0.1%
• Tagalog 12 0.1%
• Chinese 6 0.0%
• Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 3 0.0%

Households

6,866

Family households

4,411

64.2% of households

Married couples w/ children

1,331

30.2% of families

Single-mother families

347

7.9% of families

Veterans

816

6.6% of civilians 18+

• Evangelical Protestant 7,765 48.0%
• Mainline Protestant 740 4.6%
• Black Protestant 200 1.2%
• Catholic 120 0.7%
• Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 1 0.0%

Health insured

87.9%

±3.8 pp

Uninsured

12.1%

±3.8 pp

3rd of 102

With a disability

17.0%

±1.7 pp

36th of 102

Bachelor's or higher

16.3%

±2.2 pp

−21.5 pp vs IL · 90th of 102

Uninsured, under 65 (2024)

9.1%

90% interval 8.0%–10.2% · 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

2

16.15 per 100k adults (18+)

Fatal crashes

2