Harlan County, Kentucky

• White (non-Hispanic) 24,205 93.9%
• Hispanic or Latino (any race) 135 0.5%
• Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 328 1.3%
• Asian (non-Hispanic) 58 0.2%
• Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 932 3.6%
• American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 56 0.2%
• Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 10 0.0%
• Some other race (non-Hispanic) 48 0.2%

• Under 18 6,120 23.7%
• 18–24 1,694 6.6%
• 25–44 6,184 24.0%
• 45–64 6,754 26.2%
• 65 and over 5,020 19.5%

Median household income

$41,808

90% interval $37,509–$46,107

−$22,673 vs KY · 111th of 120

Below poverty line

29.4%

90% interval 24.3%–34.5%

+14.0 pp vs KY · 11th of 120

Unemployment (12-mo)

6.3%

+1.84 pp vs. state

County GDP

$759.8M

0.26% of state

Avg. annual pay

$43,614

Establishments

530

• Education & health services 1,630 26.1%
• Trade, transportation & utilities 1,107 17.7%
• Leisure & hospitality 459 7.3%
• Professional & business services 335 5.4%
• Public administration 286 4.6%
• Other services 134 2.1%
• Financial activities 120 1.9%

The sectors listed cover 65.2% of covered employment; BLS withholds the rest to avoid disclosing individual employers.

Home ownership

71.6%

+3.3 pp vs KY · 76th of 120

Median gross rent

$678

−$289 vs KY · 94th of 120

Owner-occupied

7,680

Renter-occupied

3,051

• Diversified

  Top three sectors employ 51% of the workforce, a relatively diversified local economy. Expect mixed employer backgrounds on the panel rather than concentration in any one institution or industry.

• Moderate wage spread

  Highest-paid sector (Professional & business services, $64,438/yr) pays 4.0× the lowest (Leisure & hospitality, $16,170/yr). Expect meaningful income variation across the panel.

• Mixed business scale

  Average establishment employs 12 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 9,109 87.7%
• Democratic 1,199 11.5%
• Other / third-party 76 0.7%

• Spanish 78 0.3%
• Tagalog 47 0.2%
• Vietnamese 32 0.1%
• German or other West Germanic 31 0.1%
• Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 13 0.1%
• Chinese 6 0.0%

Households

10,731

Family households

7,555

70.4% of households

Married couples w/ children

1,812

24.0% of families

Single-mother families

619

8.2% of families

Veterans

1,115

5.7% of civilians 18+

• Evangelical Protestant 11,776 43.9%
• Mainline Protestant 1,267 4.7%
• Black Protestant 618 2.3%
• Catholic 137 0.5%
• Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 81 0.3%

Health insured

95.1%

±1.3 pp

Uninsured

4.9%

±1.3 pp

85th of 120

With a disability

27.2%

±1.9 pp

16th of 120

Bachelor's or higher

13.0%

±1.8 pp

−14.6 pp vs KY · 100th of 120

Uninsured, under 65 (2024)

8.6%

90% interval 7.5%–9.7% · Census SAHIE

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

Trial court

26th Judicial Circuit Court

Judges

1 (Circuit Court judges per circuit (general civil + felony criminal jurisdiction; civil amount-in-controversy > $5,000); District Court judges (limited jurisdiction) separate. Vintage 2026 kycourts.gov; shaded-bench counts per Wikipedia 'Kentucky Circuit Courts' judge-count map, with the three '6 or more' circuits (16th Kenton, 22nd Fayette, 30th Jefferson) hard-pinned to 6, 9, and 23 respectively per Wikipedia footnote 4. Mid-range single-county metro and exurban-cluster circuits are conservative midpoints; verify against KRS § 23A.040 before relying on exact counts.)

Court seats

Harlan

Traffic fatalities

4

20.35 per 100k adults (18+)

Fatal crashes

4