Winnebago County, Illinois

• White (non-Hispanic) 180,624 63.8%
• Hispanic or Latino (any race) 44,014 15.5%
• Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 32,798 11.6%
• Asian (non-Hispanic) 8,178 2.9%
• Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 16,399 5.8%
• American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 360 0.1%
• Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 82 0.0%
• Some other race (non-Hispanic) 837 0.3%

• Under 18 66,531 23.5%
• 18–24 23,534 8.3%
• 25–44 69,748 24.6%
• 45–64 70,961 25.0%
• 65 and over 52,518 18.5%

Median household income

$67,363

90% interval $64,223–$70,503

−$15,964 vs IL · 60th of 102

Below poverty line

14.8%

90% interval 13.1%–16.5%

+3.3 pp vs IL · 19th of 102

Unemployment (12-mo)

5.7%

+0.84 pp vs. state

County GDP

$18.8B

1.64% of state

Avg. annual pay

$61,286

Establishments

5,795

• Education & health services 33,132 26.4%
• Trade, transportation & utilities 27,509 21.9%
• Manufacturing 22,208 17.7%
• Leisure & hospitality 13,812 11.0%
• Professional & business services 11,392 9.1%
• Public administration 3,628 2.9%
• Other services 3,622 2.9%
• Unclassified 2 0.0%

The sectors listed cover 91.7% of covered employment; BLS withholds the rest to avoid disclosing individual employers.

Home ownership

65.9%

−1.2 pp vs IL · 95th of 102

Median gross rent

$1,021

−$253 vs IL · 17th of 102

Owner-occupied

76,408

Renter-occupied

39,606

• Concentrated

  Top three sectors employ 66% 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, $80,006/yr) pays 3.1× the lowest (Leisure & hospitality, $25,401/yr). Expect meaningful income variation across the panel.

• Institutional employer scale

  Average establishment employs 22 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.

• Democratic 59,942 49.5%
• Republican 59,257 49.0%
• Other / third-party 1,849 1.5%

• Spanish 27,302 10.3%
• Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 2,343 0.9%
• Arabic 1,264 0.5%
• Chinese 845 0.3%
• Tagalog 709 0.3%
• Vietnamese 386 0.1%
• German or other West Germanic 377 0.1%
• French, Haitian, or Cajun 357 0.1%
• Korean 161 0.1%

Households

116,014

Family households

71,402

61.5% of households

Married couples w/ children

16,132

22.6% of families

Single-mother families

9,448

13.2% of families

Veterans

13,120

6.1% of civilians 18+

• Catholic 68,043 23.8%
• Evangelical Protestant 60,027 21.0%
• Mainline Protestant 18,170 6.4%
• Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 9,028 3.2%
• Black Protestant 6,834 2.4%
• Orthodox 620 0.2%

Health insured

93.8%

±0.5 pp

Uninsured

6.2%

±0.5 pp

22nd of 102

With a disability

15.3%

±0.5 pp

56th of 102

Bachelor's or higher

25.2%

±0.8 pp

−12.6 pp vs IL · 28th of 102

Uninsured, under 65 (2024)

8.4%

90% interval 7.6%–9.2% · Census SAHIE

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

Trial court

17th Judicial Circuit Court

Judges

27 (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

Belvidere, Rockford

This judicial district spans multiple counties.

Traffic fatalities

27

12.46 per 100k adults (18+)

Fatal crashes

26