Whitley County, Indiana

• White (non-Hispanic) 31,829 91.9%
• Hispanic or Latino (any race) 964 2.8%
• Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 56 0.2%
• Asian (non-Hispanic) 119 0.3%
• Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 1,363 3.9%
• American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 30 0.1%
• Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 11 0.0%
• Some other race (non-Hispanic) 246 0.7%

• Under 18 7,896 22.8%
• 18–24 2,519 7.3%
• 25–44 8,510 24.6%
• 45–64 9,051 26.1%
• 65 and over 6,642 19.2%

Median household income

$78,506

90% interval $72,053–$84,959

+$6,548 vs IN · 22nd of 92

Below poverty line

8.2%

90% interval 6.7%–9.7%

−3.9 pp vs IN · 83rd of 92

Unemployment (12-mo)

2.9%

−0.56 pp vs. state

County GDP

$2.2B

0.43% of state

Avg. annual pay

$60,004

Establishments

768

• Manufacturing 6,000 42.3%
• Trade, transportation & utilities 2,179 15.4%
• Education & health services 1,998 14.1%
• Leisure & hospitality 1,052 7.4%
• Professional & business services 740 5.2%
• Construction 686 4.8%
• Other services 580 4.1%
• Public administration 474 3.3%
• Financial activities 266 1.9%
• Information 108 0.8%
• Natural resources & mining 101 0.7%

Home ownership

81.8%

+11.2 pp vs IN · 17th of 92

Median gross rent

$934

−$128 vs IN · 30th of 92

Owner-occupied

11,481

Renter-occupied

2,548

• Concentrated

  Top three sectors employ 72% 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 (Financial activities, $77,587/yr) pays 4.4× the lowest (Leisure & hospitality, $17,452/yr). Stark intra-economy class divisions on the panel; calibrate damages and lost-wages framing to that range.

• Institutional employer scale

  Average establishment employs 18 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 13,122 74.0%
• Democratic 4,275 24.1%
• Other / third-party 329 1.9%

• Spanish 356 1.1%
• German or other West Germanic 129 0.4%
• Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 32 0.1%
• Vietnamese 29 0.1%
• French, Haitian, or Cajun 18 0.1%
• Chinese 16 0.0%
• Tagalog 12 0.0%

Households

14,029

Family households

9,872

70.4% of households

Married couples w/ children

2,753

27.9% of families

Single-mother families

657

6.7% of families

Veterans

2,006

7.5% of civilians 18+

• Evangelical Protestant 6,713 19.6%
• Mainline Protestant 2,940 8.6%
• Catholic 2,747 8.0%
• Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 504 1.5%

Health insured

94.0%

±1.6 pp

Uninsured

6.0%

±1.6 pp

55th of 92

With a disability

14.2%

±1.3 pp

62nd of 92

Bachelor's or higher

23.6%

±2.2 pp

−5.9 pp vs IN · 26th of 92

Uninsured, under 65 (2024)

7.3%

90% interval 6.5%–8.1% · Census SAHIE

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

Trial court

Whitley Circuit Court

Judges

2 (Combined Circuit + Superior Court trial-court judges per county (both have general civil + criminal jurisdiction); vintage 2026 Indiana Office of Judicial Administration Judicial Service Report, cross-checked against courts.in.gov per-county rosters. Counties with a count of 1 operate the Circuit Court only; larger counties add Superior Court judges with concurrent general jurisdiction. Marion County (Indianapolis) is by far the largest single-county bench in Indiana.)

Court seats

Columbia City

Traffic fatalities

6

22.45 per 100k adults (18+)

Fatal crashes

6